Jamie and Jimmy's Friday Night Feast (2014) s02e06 Episode Script
Sticky Ribs, Craft Beer and Paloma Faith
1 Me and my best mate Jimmy are back at our very own cafe here at the end of Southend Pier.
~ Who's hungry? ~ Yeah! Because we're passionate about cooking up great food to share with friends and family.
~ Lovely flavour.
~ That's delicious.
~ That's really, really good.
We've invited down a whole host of very special mates ~ Hello! ~ .
.
to help out in the kitchen.
It's getting hot, it's getting hot, it's getting hot! Because the weekends are for feasting.
~ Thank food it's Friday! ~ It's Friday! ~ On tonight's menu ~ It's kind of epic.
It's an amazing weekend feast.
I'm making super-tasty finger-licking sticky Chinese ribs.
Oh, you can even taste the smoke.
Oh, my God! That is a big, juicy, incredible rib.
I'll show you how to make your own beer in a DIY microbrewery.
My first batch of craft beer.
My version of pale ale.
And we're off on a food-waste fight.
This time, we're going nuts for a source of sustainable, delicious food that's currently being binned.
There is one meat that is really doing you proud at the moment in your pies.
~ Yeah.
Squirrel.
~ Argh! Kerryann, my love, we need one more tea out there, please.
I've already made yours.
What, for a customer? As usual, my right-hand woman, Kerryann, is helping me out in the kitchen.
~ Have you got sugar lumps as well? ~ What did you say about my lumps? Have you gut su? We've got a menu of fabulous feasts for you to try this weekend.
And joining us in the caff, a singer whose powerful voice and eccentric style has won her a legion of loyal fans.
~ Surprise! ~ It's Paloma Faith.
~ Good to see you.
~ Hello, you gorgeous girl.
~ I'm so excited to see you.
~ Thank you.
Me too.
~ Welcome to Southend Pier.
~ It's like Blind Date.
You know, when the screen goes back.
~ So you love your food? ~ Yeah.
It's an issue.
~ Have you always cooked? I've always been a massive foodie.
My first word was actually choc-choc before mama or dada.
~ Ah! ~ It was choc-choc.
Apparently, I looked at a packet of chocolate buttons.
Like, I've had a lot of different cultures growing up because I was brought up in Hackney, which is like The bit that I was in was mainly African-Caribbean and Turkish community.
And my father's Spanish and my stepfather's Chinese.
~ Wow! ~ And my mum's from, like, a rural part of England.
~ Great.
~ She'd have chickens? ~ I used to go to my grandma's house and they'd go, "Which chicken are we having for dinner?" And I'd point at it and they'd go, "Wait outside.
" And I'd just hear it rraawwkkk! ~ And then that would be dinner.
~ That's brilliant.
~ I'm quite hands on and I love cooking and most of the people who taught me to cook in my life have been male.
So between my Chinese stepdad and my Spanish father And I've got Italian family, I was like ~ Little bits from all over.
~ You are the person for doing a dinner party? Yeah.
And I've done, like, seven years' Christmas in a row.
But how lucky for your boyfriend to get cooked for.
He actually told me recently that, um, it was He realised it was you that he fell in love with because everything that I do is, basically, from your books.
He wants his money back.
He didn't give me any in the first place.
I think just, like, the most people I've ever cooked for is about 14, 15 people round at mine once.
And I felt like it was a big achievement.
Well, today, you're gonna be cooking for this lot.
It's gonna be the biggest achievement.
OK, you two, er, it's time for today's first feast.
You're gonna love it.
It's finger-licking good.
It's sticky Chinese ribs.
You up for a bit of that? ~ Totally.
Let's get messy.
~ Let's get messy.
Before they get stuck in, I'm gonna show you how to make it at home.
I love making these ribs.
It's really, really good fun to do.
It's kind of epic.
It's an amazing weekend feast.
Whenever you [do this.]
, it silences a room and people just get stuck in and go a little bit Fred Flintstone about their eating.
I love it.
So first of all, we've got the beautiful pork.
I'm using lovely free-range pigs here.
You can see it's the ribs.
It's the long cut with the belly attached as well.
So you're gonna get loads of sweet meat.
These racks weigh about two kilos each and will feed 12 to 16 people.
So just get yourself two long pieces of tin foil.
Get your pork like this.
Season the ribs all over with salt and the star of the show, Chinese five-spice.
This stuff is incredible.
It's guaranteed sort of big beautiful flavour.
It's traditionally a grind of cinnamon, cloves, Chinese star anise, black pepper, fennel seeds and it just smells and tastes fantastic.
Roast the pork ribs curve upwards, so that the meat on the underside is bathing in all those juices.
This is important, this wrapping part, OK? Because in the belly and the ribs, it works a lot, OK, so it's gonna be super-tough.
But, when you slow cook it, it allows the flavour to penetrate and the kind of steam hydrates the sinews and then it kind of breaks and becomes sticky and gorgeous and tender.
Cook them in the oven at 160-degrees centigrade for three hours.
Next, barbecue sauce.
To create a spiced Asian version of this classic, finely slice three red onions and soften in a hot pan.
Then add some more of that Chinese five-spice and a few extra whole star anise.
So look at this, star anise.
The flavour of the inner and outer part is just incredible, quite liquoricey.
But it's just got so much more than that.
Really, really integral to Chinese and Vietnamese cooking.
Just gonna put six or so star anise in there.
We just want to fry off these onions so they're super, super, super sweet.
Add eight tablespoons of apple juice with six spoons of hoisin sauce, four of honey, two of ketchup and two tablespoons of rice-wine vinegar.
All we need to do now is just simmer it away for a couple of minutes, to go thick and shiny and gorgeous.
Remove the star anise and liquidise the sauce in a blender.
Then pass through a sieve for an ultra-silky consistency.
I just use a spoon, just to move around.
Delicious.
Three hours later, the ribs come out of the oven, ready for stage two.
This is the really, really exciting bit.
Let's have a look what we got for our money.
Just tear away the tin foil.
Look at the juice that's come out.
So much juice.
I'm gonna pour these juices, all of them, into our barbecue sauce.
That is so good.
With the juices added, the sauce will need to reduce down until it's thick and glossy.
So let's do the fun bit.
Let's glaze our beautiful pork.
So get your DIY skills ready and raring to go.
And let's have a little paint up.
Cover every inch of your ribs with the sweet sticky glaze.
It's gonna seal in the moisture and give us incredible flavour.
I'm gonna whack this in the oven at about 200.
So a little bit hotter now.
In she goes.
Now That's in the oven.
That's gonna go beautiful, shiny, sticky and glazed and there's one more little tip that's an optional extra.
To really give these ribs the edge, I want to inject some serious smoky flavours.
So how do you turn an everyday home oven into a tiny miniature smoker? You're gonna need a metal [sieve and some barbecue wood chips.]
, available online or from your garden centre.
Get it going, it takes seconds.
As soon as you see a bit of flame happening, we're laughing.
What that's gonna do is create a little smoker in your oven.
It doesn't create loads of smoke outside the oven but any chilli, any soup, any rice dish, any curry that you do will be transformed by this little trick.
We blow it out.
In we go.
The fan's pushing that smoke around.
The cinders in there will just keep kind of smouldering away.
And that is a great tip.
Ten minutes later and you're ready to get those beautiful smoky ribs out of the oven.
This is a show-stopper.
This is gonna put smiles on people's faces.
I've got a massive platter like this, so let's get it happening.
I'm serving my ribs with fluffy fragrant rice.
Now you're ready to carve up.
Look how tender.
Oh, my Lord! Just look into there.
Hoo-hoo! Oh, you can even taste the smoke.
Oh, my God! Yeah, that's exactly what I want.
To garnish, just sprinkle with some finely sliced chillies, spring onions, radishes and coriander.
Why do you want this? Because it's just contrast, colour and freshness.
And that, my friends, is beautiful.
Sticky Chinese ribs in all of its beauty.
A mouth-watering feast of slow-cooked glossy ribs.
Tender meat, just falling off the bone, liberally glazed with that dark sweet and sour barbecue sauce.
That is a big, juicy, incredible rib, right there.
Big mess, big flavours and a big weekend feast.
Let's just tear a little bit of that meat, bit of the rice, bit of chilli, bit of radish.
In the gob.
Mm! Oh, my God! Big, insane flavour, like that.
I hope everyone in the cafe loves these as much as I do.
Amazing.
Paloma, would you like to go and feed the people? ~ Yeah.
Who wants some of this? ~ Me! ~ Don't be polite.
~ No! No forks allowed.
Fingers only.
~ Hands.
~ And look, he's in.
What do you think? ~ Amazing.
~ Right, I'm taking it back.
~ No! ~ It's too good.
~ Wow! Darling, go in, fingers and all.
Just get it in your gob.
~ There you are.
~ Mm! ~ Oh! That is something else.
~ I've got so much in my mouth.
~ You can't even talk.
It's a taste sensation.
I'm so happy! I couldn't be happier.
My sticky ribs are hitting the spot.
But Paloma's here to cook today's special for the whole cafe.
What is the dish you have chosen and why? I came up with bacalhau a bras, which is a Portuguese thing.
Because, when I was little, my dad moved to Portugal, I used to, like, get on a plane by myself and go and visit him.
He took me once to this beach and it had, like, a little hut on it that this old lady lived in and you'd go in there and you'd say, "What are you cooking?" And she'd just give you whatever she had.
And then you'd pay her for it.
It's the mix of the fact that the food was so good and, like, home-cooked, with the fact that I thought it was so amazing as a kid just to, like, go to somebody's house and say, "Can you cook for us?" And, obviously, it's an interesting dish because it's essentially fries, ~ scrambled egg, onions and salt cod.
~ Yeah.
~ All mixed together.
~ Quite simple stuff.
~ For a lot of British people, they won't get it.
~ No.
~ But if you take it apart, it's kind of fish and chips.
As vague as your, er, memory was on that shack on the beach, er, we take our research really seriously and we've spent the last month trying to find it and we looked everywhere.
~ We used literally everything from local news crews, ~ Scoured the country.
~ .
.
bloggers, scouting for this particular place in this particular area you gave us.
~ It probably doesn't exist now.
~ The sad news is it closed two years ago.
~ Oh, so close.
~ But everyone on our journey gave us a name of someone that we should speak to about Because it's actually a very regional dish, this particular dish.
Maria de Lourdes Modesto is Portugal's answer to Delia Smith.
There's nothing she doesn't know about classic Portuguese cooking.
She's given me her recipe for bacalhau a bras.
A dish that celebrates Portugal's favourite ingredient, salt cod.
It's been a staple of Portuguese cuisine for 500 years, even earning the nickname "fiel amigo," my faithful friend.
Me and you are gonna cook this and then I'm handing over to you because you have to cook for everyone in this cafe.
Save some room.
Next, we meet the pie pioneers who are challenging our views on what meat we can eat.
~ Oh! ~ That's squirrel.
~ It is delicious.
I think people think it's gamey.
That is not gamey.
That's a beautiful, rich, gorgeous pie.
And it gets a bit slapstick in the kitchen with the cheeky Paloma Faith.
I'd love to slap you round the face with it.
Here at our caff in Southend, we're tucking into a menu packed full of weekend feasts.
~ Still hungry? ~ Yeah! Singer Paloma Faith is here to cook for the whole cafe.
I'm gonna show her how to make her favourite meal from her childhood.
A Portuguese salt-cod dish called bacalhau a bras.
OK, this is a really interesting dish.
I'd never cooked it before.
I've tested it now several times.
It's delicious.
Portugal's leading authority on traditional regional cooking, Maria de Lourdes Modesto, has given us tips and the recipe.
You got salt cod, we're mixing chips, um, and eggs together.
~ Everyone's gonna go, "What?" But it's comfort food.
~ When you try it, ~ it's amazing, yes.
~ Yeah, so it starts over here.
This is salt cod.
Drying cod in salt is an ancient way of preserving it and gives the fish a firmer texture and a sweeter flavour.
Can you smell it? It sort of smells a little bit kind of funky.
I think I would love to slap you round the face with this.
~ Go on then, come on.
~ Would you? Ugh! Go on.
Violate me back.
~ I don't want ~ Go on.
~ Your face is too pretty.
Can I just do the bottom? OK.
Boom! Anyway, if you go down to lovely sort of Portuguese, Spanish, even Italian delis, they will sell this stuff.
Could you use the same cod that you would get in a Caribbean shop? ~ Yes.
Absolutely.
~ Same thing? I've soaked the salt cod overnight to rehydrate it and remove some of the salt.
Next, we're gonna gently poach it with herbs, lemon and shallots.
I'll use some parsley stalks.
If you can chop those up for me, my darling.
~ Like this? ~ Yeah.
The stalks, they've got a nice flavour actually.
I'm gonna put a bit of lemon zest in there.
That obviously freshens it up a little bit.
It's a very big knife, this is, just to do some stalks.
Mind your finger.
Yeah.
I wouldn't want to be responsible for cutting your lovely finger.
I know you're a good cook but your chopping skills are a bit No, I told you.
The knife's a bit big for me.
~ This is cross chopping.
~ OK.
~ And it's the safest chop in the world because you can actually chop like a chef within 30 seconds.
~ But it goes everywhere.
~ No, but then swoop it back together again.
OK.
~ Like a plasterer.
~ Shall I have a go? ~ Go on.
~ Have a jig up.
Nice.
~ Cross crop Cross chopping.
~ Cross chopping.
While Paloma struggles to sharpen up her knife skills, we're off to Leicestershire for our next fight against food waste.
We're a nation of supermarket shoppers and, when it comes to choosing meat, we've all got used to convenient plastic-wrapped produce.
But this also means we've got used to the narrow range of what's on offer.
We live in a society now where your meat comes in a little tiny box, with cellophane over the top.
The chops are all the same size.
~ Chicken, beef, pork, lamb.
~ We are limited.
~ That's it.
We are limited in the availability of different meat.
But there are plenty of other meats out there and we've heard about one type of delicious wild meat that's currently being binned.
The cooking that has been for thousands of years has utilised all healthy wild animals.
All of them.
You hit the nail on the head when you said "utilised".
Using everything.
We seem to live in a world now where we think we can just waste stuff and there's one meat that I think is well worth investigating.
~ Mr Squirrel.
~ Mr Squirrel.
~ Tasty little blighter.
~ Oh, yes.
Fluffy grey squirrels may seem cute but they cause £10 million worth of damage to our woodlands every year, killing trees and seeing off our native red squirrels too.
They're responsibly culled to keep numbers down but, because we don't eat them, the meat is left to rot.
Eating squirrel isn't just about some sort of fad or because it's unusual.
It's important that we eat it because it's using a resource that's actually going to waste.
It's out there, it's available and at the moment, quite frankly, it's all going in the bin.
It seems senseless that so much nutritious wild meat is going to waste.
We always used to eat squirrel in the UK, right through to the 1950s.
But is the great British public ready for a squirrel comeback? Time for some market research.
We're off to meet some pioneering producers who already cook with it.
Nice, Jim.
~ Hi, guys.
I hear this is the home of award-winning pies.
~ It is, yeah.
Kath, Phil and daughter Aimi, run a six-acre homestead, raising animals and living off the land.
They found it outrageous that good meat was being binned.
So just over a year ago, novice cook Kath started using squirrel in her pies.
Now their walls are plastered with awards and I'm hoping that their artisanal produce could signify the start of a squirrel-eating revolution.
~ Look at that.
OK, that is ~ That's a big old pie.
That is unbelievable.
What's that? It says, ~ "Wild squirrel and Madeira pate.
" ~ Wild squirrel and Madeira.
Yeah.
~ Never tried anything like that.
~ Do you want to try? ~ Yeah.
~ Look at that.
~ Oh, it smells incredible.
It's like being in Provence or something lovely like that.
Ooh! Delicious, tasty, sweet.
~ Yeah.
~ Really, really good.
Which is getting me very excited about the squirrel pie.
~ Yeah.
Shall we have a cook-up then? ~ Oh, cook it first? ~ Yeah, and then you can try the pie.
~ She's keeping us hanging on.
Come on then, darling.
While they get started in the kitchen, I'm heading to the woods.
As a farmer, I know first-hand just how much of a pest grey squirrels can be.
This is just perfect habitat for grey squirrels, though, isn't it? ~ Yeah, absolutely.
~ But they do an incredible amount of damage.
~ It's unbelievable.
~ Do you see much damage? ~ There's one or two bits.
A bit there where they've been munching away on the bark.
~ Look at that.
~ If they strip that bark completely off a tree, ~ the tree will die.
~ So if they ring bark the tree, ~ that's gonna kill the tree.
~ That's dead.
And that's happening all across our woodlands, thousands and thousands of squirrels doing it.
A hidden little terror army, destroying our natural vegetation.
~ These squirrels will be culled.
So the meat will go in the bin? ~ Yeah.
Gamekeepers and people are culling them and throwing them in the hedge bottom.
That's what I love about what you're doing because you're giving a solution to a problem.
These are a pest.
They have to be controlled but let's not waste them.
Let's not throw the meat away, it's great meat.
Yeah, it is really good meat.
Really good flavour.
Rich, gamey.
It's incredible.
But tell me, on the packets, do you have to put "may contain nuts"? ~ No, we don't.
~ You should, that's a selling point.
In a farmhouse kitchen, Kath and her daughter Aimi are showing me how to put all that squirrel to good use.
~ You've got the squirrel here.
~ Slow-cooked squirrel, yeah.
Let's just have a look at the squirrel body here.
The meat is so tender, it's unbelievable.
Where do all the squirrels come from? Well, we buy a lot in from exotic-meat suppliers.
~ And we also have local people that ~ Bring them round.
.
.
if they've caught or shot a squirrel, bring them round for us.
Whether sourced locally or from online suppliers, all Kath's meat comes from wild culled squirrels that would normally go to waste.
What's the response from your everyday customer? Some people, they can't believe that you'd put squirrel in a pie.
This is what I don't understand because, I reckon, if you took your everyday British person and you showed them, like, standard high-intensity commercial chicken production, how they live, how they're fed and what that environment's like, and then you took them to a squirrel up a tree, eating on nuts and stuff, ~ there is no comparison between the two lives, is there? ~ No.
Do you ever have someone that's a complete naysayer, like, "Oh, no, no, no," and then they try it and they're like, ~ "Oh, God! It's lovely, innit?" ~ Yeah, we do.
They do try it and change their mind.
~ Really surprised.
~ Have you got regulars? Yeah, we do.
We have regular customers.
And wherever we go, like farmers' markets, we sell out every time.
~ Really? ~ We do, yeah.
It's great to hear that Kath's pies are winning people over and that the great British public are willing to give squirrel a go.
Look at that.
That is a very beautiful British pie.
~ It's not quite finished yet.
~ No? ~ Oh, my Lord! ~ This little fella here.
And then we just pop him on the top.
Now that's the finished pie.
This is proper love, care and attention, innit, right here? Time to pop these beauties in the oven.
Something's telling me this squirrel pie is gonna be worth the wait.
~ Jim, come and have a look at this.
~ Oh, look.
So, mate, we got two pies here.
All made with love from me and the girls.
Hot pie.
And here, it's kind of like a pork pie but it's a squirrel pie.
~ So we go cold first.
Look at that.
~ Oh, my Lord! ~ Would you like to try some, sir? ~ Oh, yes please.
Cheers.
Cor! That is great, isn't it? So tasty.
~ I've got my mouth full, so I can't say anything.
~ It's the best way.
Now, wait for it.
Ooh! That's the nicest thing you've ever given me.
~ Ooh! ~ Oh! ~ That's squirrel.
~ It is delicious.
I think people think gamey.
That is not gamey, that's a beautiful, rich, ~ gravy-kissed, gorgeous pie.
~ Do you know, I want everyone to enjoy this.
~ Mm! ~ We should all be eating squirrel.
Phil, Kath and Aimi are pioneers of the squirrel-eating revival but there are only so many pies Kath can bake.
So we need to find a wider audience for this excellent wasted meat.
Here's a thing.
We have to get out the mindset that we were put on earth to eat meat that is chicken, beef, pork, lamb and that's it.
It never used to be like that.
We need to get back to how our ancestors would feed their families and utilise incredible healthy wild food.
If it's a pest, you're doing the farmers, or whoever, a favour anyway.
I reckon the answer lies in restaurants.
That's how the nose-to-tail meat revolution took off.
I want to see if we can get innovative chefs to put squirrel on their menus.
I think, if we get hold of a bunch of squirrels, get some chefs together, we should get in the kitchen and cook up some squirrel.
~ Let's spread the word.
~ See it in different ways.
See what happens.
~ Let's do it.
Thanks.
Fantastic pies.
~ Lovely to meet you too.
~ And you.
But first, time to see how Kath's pies go down with our cafe diners.
Fancy a squirrel pie? ~ It is lovely.
~ Really good.
~ No, it's nice.
It is genuinely nice.
Next, hop into action with some home brewed beer in my DIY microbrewery.
Here we go.
Let the good times roll.
While Paloma gets her hands dirty in the kitchen.
Get the action.
I love it.
On Southend Pier, we're serving up delicious weekend feasts.
~ Are you excited? ~ Yeah! ~ Are you still hungry? ~ Yeah! Our diners have been enjoying sticky Chinese ribs ~ and squirrel pie.
~ No, it's nice.
It is genuinely nice.
Now back to today's special, Paloma Faith's bacalhau a bras.
A Portuguese comfort-food dish, inspired by childhood visits to her dad's home near Lisbon.
Made with fries, salt cod, eggs and olives.
It's been soaked.
It's now poaching.
~ Just 15 minutes and then we'll flake it.
~ Is that boiling water? ~ Just poaching.
So just below boiling.
~ I don't know what poaching is.
Boiling is 101 degrees.
Poaching will be about 95.
Just tiny bubbles maybe.
For the base of the dish, we're gonna gently fry some sliced onions until sweet and golden.
Next, we're onto the garnish.
The classic thing to do on your dish is just to do this at the end.
~ Some olives.
Do you remember that? ~ Yeah.
~ OK.
That's fine and I've got no issues with that.
But I've kind of taken it on to the next level.
I want to transform these olives with a zingy dressing that will really bring them to life.
Sprinkle in some dried chilli.
~ How much? ~ Er, just a nice generous pinch.
I'm gonna cut you up some parsley.
Can you put about two tablespoons of that red wine vinegar in? ~ What, just guess? Estimate? ~ Yeah.
I trust you.
You're that kind of cook.
Lovely Portuguese olive oil.
Put about six tablespoons in there.
And then I want to get some beautiful Paloma Faith's hands in there and just give it a little massage-ay.
Get the action.
And if you can just mix it up with your hands, get physical with it You like that about cooking, you don't like mucking about, do you? I love it.
Do you want it all squished together? Yeah.
I guess the thing I'm trying to do is, in that salty olive is a really fragrant, delicious olive.
So after about 15 minutes, this will taste heavenly.
I mean, actually, try one now and see the difference even straightaway.
~ So we knocked it back, right? ~ Yeah, it's so much less salty.
You could put fennel seeds in, a little garlic in there.
You can of riff it.
You can chop it up and make tapenade.
You can throw it into all sorts of lovely fish dishes.
But that's a nice little preparation, right there.
The salt cod has been gently poached for about 15 minutes.
I bet they wouldn't have wasted this back in the day.
Just have a little taste of the old stock.
Try that because that's a really lovely clear broth, if you put ~ That's delicious.
~ If you put peas into that and kind of noodles.
I don't know what the Portuguese would have done with it but I don't think they would have thrown that away.
~ No, that's like a good fish stock, isn't it? ~ It is really good.
The fish now needs to be skinned, de-boned and flaked.
So this is kind of what the salt does, if I may.
It starts to flake.
~ Can you see how that? ~ Yeah.
~ It's like a deck of cards, almost.
~ Look at that.
~ Mm! ~ So that is what we want.
It's the salting that gives the cod this firm texture, meaning that the flakes hold together beautifully in the finished dish.
If you can put it into here, like that and I'll start chopping it up.
Do you sort of do Sunday dinners for your mum and stuff like that? ~ Aunties and uncles? ~ I think my mum would like it if I did more Sunday dinners for her.
~ Is she a good cook? ~ She gets upset if I say she's not a good cook.
~ So I have to say yes.
~ OK.
So she's a really good cook, then, Paloma? Olives are done.
I think we just let that do its job.
~ OK.
~ Would you like a cup of tea? Glass of wine? A spritz? Ginger beer? ~ I think What do they have in Lisbon? ~ Port.
~ Maybe we should have that.
~ Let's have a glass of port.
It's Portugal, innit? ~ Just the one only.
~ Right.
While they knock a few back in the kitchen, I've got my own tipple on the go with my DIY microbrewery.
Draught beers made by small independent brewers have taken the UK by storm.
So why not make your own? There are a few stages to master but, once you've got the hang of it, you could be brewing your own bespoke beer for less than 50p a pint.
To get started, I'm using an old tea urn, a cool box and a few bits of kit from a home-brewer supplier.
A lot of people think making beer is either really technical or you need a great big factory, there's a lot of know-how, or some sort of alchemy.
But you can make really great craft beer with a few of these simple ingredients.
Step one is all about mixing malted barley and hot water.
This is called "the mash".
The first bit of kit I'm gonna build is something called a mash tun.
You've all probably been into a pub called the Mash Tun and there's good reason for that.
It's because, without this bit of kit, you won't make beer.
For my mash tun, I'm using an insulated cool box to mix the barley and hot water.
But I'll need to separate the liquid out at the end.
So I'm adding a tap to the side and building a frame out of copper piping.
I've cut some slits through the pipes so it will act like a sieve.
Look at that.
This is gonna sit at the bottom of my cool box.
So as the fluid drains down through here, that little frame will allow all the liquid out but keep the solid in.
Right, that's the mash tun made.
Time to make the mash and for that I need to put the kettle on.
I want to make myself a batch of traditional British pale ale, so I'm gonna use pale malted barley as the base for my beer.
But the beauty of home brewing is that you can experiment with different flavours just by using different malts.
Now you start adding the pale malt.
Wow! That just smells wonderful.
Let's turn it off.
Give that a lovely stir before I leave it to sit for an hour to work its magic.
Now, the reason I've done it in an icebox is because it's insulated.
It's gonna hold that temperature and that's gonna allow that mash to develop.
An essential ingredient in beer, these gorgeous fragrant hops are the dried flowers of the hop plant.
I've bought myself a few varieties online.
In Britain, we've got some wonderful hops.
That's why I want to use good old classics like Fuggles, or East Kent Goldings.
It just smells incredible.
I've got the malted barley liquid back into the tea urn.
Now I can add the hops and leave it to boil.
After an hour, my beer is almost ready but I want to add a citrusy twist.
Lemon peel in.
Grapefruit, that goes in.
And last, I'm gonna add my East Kent Goldings.
These wonderful English hops.
And at this stage, it's all about the aromas.
The hops before were all about bitter.
Now it's about flavour.
In you go, my friends.
Make this a beautiful beer.
Once the boil is complete, you need to cool it down quickly to prevent any bacteria from ruining your brew.
To do this, we use a coil of copper pipe.
Attach a length of tubing to each end, so cold water can pass through the copper coil.
Time to put in my copper coil.
Running cold water through the pipes brings the temperature down super-fast.
When it drops to 20 degrees, you're ready for the next stage.
Now it's all about the alcohol.
And, for that, we need yeast.
These guys are Mother Nature's little helpers.
I'm gonna pop them in and they'll hit that warm water and they'll start to hydrate and wake up.
And they're gonna convert the sugars into alcohol.
Right.
That's perfect.
So lid on.
You see this sticking out at the top? Well, this is a little airlock.
It allows the carbon dioxide out but doesn't let any oxygen in.
That's really important.
And this bucket now can sit in a dark corner, room temperature, to ferment away.
After a week of fermenting, your brew is ready to bottle.
It smells like the night after a student party.
It's that real sort of beery smell.
I've got rid of the sediment and I'm adding a pinch of sugar for extra fizz.
And then that's it.
Job done.
Here we go.
Let the good times roll.
In you go.
Look at that.
That's perfect.
Let's get a little production line going here.
Hot off the press, my first batch of craft beer.
My version of pale ale.
Great British grains, fantastic English hops.
I can't wait to taste these.
Gonna leave them for about two weeks in storage, somewhere nice and cool and dark, and then time to open and taste.
Two weeks later and it's the moment of truth.
Hopefully, there's gonna be a bit of a fizz in it.
Ready? ~ Let's get that ~ Ahh! ~ Paloma, would you like a beer, darling? ~ Taste this.
See what you think of this, my love.
Do you want to open your bottles? ~ Yeah, pop away.
~ Cheers.
~ Oh! ~ It sounds like Christmas! ~ That's light-tasting, isn't it? ~ Yeah.
~ I like the peel.
~ Yeah.
That does taste like proper beer.
That's why my nostrils are flaring.
~ What do you reckon, guys? How do you like the beer? ~ It's nice.
~ Yeah! 15 quid for 40 pints.
All the fellas' eyes are like, "What?!" ~ Cheers, guys.
~ Cheers! ~ Cheers! Mate, I'm really, really I mean, from the days that me and you worked in my dad's pub, I never thought I'd see you making your own beer.
That is delicious.
Paloma, don't get too comfortable, darling, because the next course is yours, baby.
The service is getting slower.
But you're doing it in style with those stilettos on.
Don't you worry.
Back to today's special and time for everyone's favourite, chips.
I'm doing them in a traditional style, cut super fine.
This is much smaller than your regular sort of chip from a little fish and chip shop, isn't it? Um, we call them shoestring fries.
So you can do it by knife skills, like this, or we have the mandolin here.
It's not like a mandolin in your game.
~ Hm! ~ So it's like that.
It's quite nice for doing the job.
It's pretty efficient at it.
I'm cooking two batches.
This first batch, I only want to cook for a few minutes until the chips have softened and very lightly coloured.
Then leave to drain.
The final ingredient is the velvety coating of the soft scrambled egg.
So Paloma's whipping some up ready to fold into the fish and onions.
And if you can stir for me, I'm gonna pour this egg in.
Oh, it's so beautiful.
At this point, I think it's important to take the pan off the heat, so you get beautiful soft sheets of eggs rippling through the dish.
~ See how those little curds? See, the little skirts and curds.
~ Yeah.
I'm now gonna put in the fries and this is the bit ~ that's gonna really weird local Brits out.
~ It looks so good.
But this is a really authentic, intelligent dish.
And now I've made it, I want everyone to try it.
~ Look at that.
~ I'm so happy we did this.
Next, we find out if top UK chefs are willing to serve up a woodland treat in their restaurants.
Let's not forget that having squirrel on the menu is exciting.
I've shown her the ropes but how will Paloma handle ~ cooking for the whole cafe? ~ How many onions was it? I don't know where the whisker is.
Weekends are for feasting and here on Southend Pier we've been doing just that.
~ Hands up if you're still hungry.
~ Yeah! We've got the gorgeous Paloma Faith in our kitchen cooking today's special.
Portuguese bacalhau a bras.
She loved it as a child.
And now I'm gonna show her how to serve a perfect portion.
~ So shall we plate up then? ~ I'm dying for it.
~ I think we're there.
~ So if you could ~ Look at the desperation in my eyes.
~ I know.
If you just pour it over, hang it over here and then I'll just edge it in myself.
Time to add my second batch of matchstick fries, cooked till crispy and golden.
I'm just gonna sprinkle ~ Oh, beautiful.
~ .
.
this around here.
And this is quite traditional to do it like this.
And then the parsley.
~ From a great height.
~ Well, I don't it from a great height because I'm pretentious, it's just to distribute it nice and evenly.
~ And that's it.
~ It looks beautiful.
~ If I may.
~ Oh, you so may.
~ Take your weapon.
~ Taking me back.
Oh, wow! It's it.
I feel like I'm on the beach in the hut again.
It's naughty, innit? I mean, that is an amazing Portuguese comfort-food dish.
Thank you for bringing it.
I'd never done it before.
~ So good.
Thanks for doing it.
I'm going in.
~ They're all still hungry.
So I'm gonna retract from the kitchen.
Um, 30 times that.
~ It's coming! ~ Is that all right? All Paloma's got to do is remember and recreate the recipe.
How many onions was it? I don't know where the whisker is.
These are gonna be a while, aren't they? I'm trying here.
Struggling through.
It's a lot of people to feed.
While Paloma cracks on with her dish, it's back to our food fight, where we're trying to stop a delicious wild food from being wasted.
Tens of thousands of grey squirrels are culled every year in Britain and most of that great meat is left to rot or sent to landfill.
Not only is that a crime ethically but we're also missing out on some fabulous food.
We're not promoting we should go out and kill more squirrels.
That's already happening.
What I want to see is actually utilising what's being wasted.
With global populations going up and food prices in crisis, it seems crazy that we waste this source of sustainable wild meat.
We need to broaden our horizons beyond the usual mass-produced meats and I think the way to do that is via restaurants.
I've just noticed just recently, in the last couple of months, I've seen wild boar and all these kind of, like, more unusual things.
You know, they're popping up on menus all around London.
As soon as they get in London, they start to travel around the rest of the country.
I think it's a really interesting time because customers are buying this stuff.
Wild meats are on trend, so I've called up a band of innovative chefs to see if they'd consider this wasted meat for their restaurants.
So this is gonna be exciting.
We're all cooking squirrel.
With me today is Martin Morales, founder of Ceviche, the first Peruvian restaurant in the UK to bring us the food of the Andes.
And he's no stranger to cooking wild meats.
~ Peruvian food.
~ Yeah.
~ Do you come across squirrel? We've got rabbit and we've got guinea pig.
So in the Andes of Peru, we cook with guinea pig.
It's a delicacy there and it's been cooked for thousands of years.
So I can't see why we can't do that more with other meats here.
Martin is taking inspiration from a Peruvian speciality, picante de conejo, a spicy braised rabbit dish that he's reworking to try with squirrel.
I mean, I actually have to say, Martin, having squirrel on one of your menus alongside, you know, suckling pigs ~ and, you know, offal and stuff, that would work.
~ Absolutely.
~ It would work.
~ We use beef heart, we use rabbit.
So, yeah, of course.
Next is Rakesh Ravindran Nair.
He's head chef of The Cinnamon Club, an Indian restaurant that regularly serves game and other unusual meats.
Do you know what? I shouldn't say it too loudly ~ but I'm the most excited about your dish ~ Really? .
.
because I love a curry.
And I think squirrel and curry, it could be a match made in heaven.
Rakesh will be giving his squirrel the tandoor treatment.
He's tenderised the meat with pineapple juice and marinated it with Rajasthani spices, ginger and garlic.
I know it's a stupid question, do you have squirrels in India? ~ Plenty of them, yes.
~ You have lots of different species of squirrel? ~ Do you have traditions of cooking them? ~ I'm not.
You have some mental block against, less common animals like squirrels.
I think it was the same thing about veal a few years ago.
People had a mental block against veal and not eating it.
~ Yeah.
~ But these days, veal is quite popular as beef.
We're being hosted by the Golden Fleece in Leicester, where head chef Jack Morley champions locally sourced food.
So what [are you gonna do to the squirrels? Um, I'm doing.]
some barbecue squirrel enchiladas with smoked bacon and barbecue sauce.
And what is it about the meat that, for you as a chef, is gonna be great for this dish? I just think it's so tender, beautiful in the enchiladas, yeah.
~ Yeah.
~ Very tasty.
Squirrel meat is nutritious and low in fat.
Each chef is trying different techniques and different flavours to make the most of it.
But there's still one place left to visit.
~ What's Essex doing? What is Essex doing? ~ OK.
~ First up, um, I've just sweated off some leeks.
~ Yeah.
Then I just hit it with a little wine.
The whole squirrel.
I put it in the oven for about five, six hours until it just falls away off the bone.
What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna hit that up with mascarpone cream, some Parmesan cheese and I'm gonna flake all of this meat off the bone.
And I'm gonna do it with tagliolini.
I normally use rabbit for this pasta recipe but I think the rich squirrel meat could really work.
Finish it with just a small little shake of Parmesan.
Time to test our creations and see if this wild meat is as versatile as I'd hoped.
This is a very cheap dish to make.
Leeks cost nothing.
Small amount of Parmesan.
The squirrel is cheap.
~ Do you like that? ~ Really good.
~ Right.
~ Next up, Jack's barbecue squirrel enchiladas.
~ Nice and tender meat.
~ A little bit of Mexico in the middle of the countryside.
~ Oh, yeah.
~ Brilliant.
~ Martin's Peruvian special is also a slow-cooked dish, packed with really robust flavours.
That just looks the business.
~ Martin, that's incredibly tender, bruv.
~ So much flavour in the meat.
That is Peruvian comfort food right there.
Right.
Let's go to India.
That's amazing.
That was making me feel like I had a big hug from a big old Peruvian nonna, you know.
But this is completely different.
The meat has got more texture to it.
~ Delicious.
~ Oh! Those flavours, on that squirrel.
Boys, a sterling job, thank you all very much for doing this.
I guess the question we've got to ask, would the customers buy it? The squirrel meat has certainly stood up to some rigorous recipe testing but does it mean it would work in our restaurants? How about, in the next month, let's try and get it on the menus, specials, and just see what happens? At the end of the day, there's only one person ~ that's gonna choose if this works or not.
~ Yeah.
~ That's the customer.
~ Are you up for it? ~ Definitely.
~ Me too.
~ Let's do it.
~ Let's see what the public think.
~ Yeah.
Back in the cafe, I'm cooking up my squirrel ragu for the diners.
I've trialled it in my restaurants and it's gone down a storm.
Jamie, how have the guys fared that were trying all the dishes out? The young chef at the pub sold out every time he's put it on the menu.
Er, Martin at Ceviche, er, and his other restaurant, has it on the specials board and it's sold out every time he's done it.
And Rakesh at The Cinnamon Club, he's had a great time with it.
The one thing they all said was that dialogue between them and the customer, you know, was kind of like, "Really? Are you sure?" There's a debate going on but that's a good thing in a restaurant.
If you can win them over and they try it, the customers were happy.
Let's see what happens.
If people can get hold of it, they'll try it.
So squirrel has worked on the menus of all four restaurants.
And I hope this is the start of a wider trend to stop the waste and make the most of this tasty meat.
It's very nice.
And if you want to have a go at cooking with squirrel, you can.
John Mettrick is president of the Butchers' Association and can help you get your paws on some squirrel.
John, you're one of Britain's best butchers, OK, and you're, you're known around the country.
Customers coming to the shop, do you think they're gonna take it on? Yeah, I think they'll have a go.
I think the thing is there is a bit of a trend at the moment because people are a bit suspicious sometimes of conventional meat, whereas wild meat, they think, "Well, there's nothing gone into it, therefore I'm happy to eat it.
" You know, and they trust their butcher as well.
What we're saying to our members, and we've got a thousand spread over England and Wales, is if you get a customer asking for squirrel, source it, get it for them, because that's what butchers are.
We try and fit our customers up, we try our best for them and that's what we're looking to do.
~ So, guys, who would eat squirrel again? ~ Yes! The squirrel's a hit but there's one more course to serve to the cafe.
Paloma's Portuguese special.
~ Paloma, how are we doing? ~ It's looking amazing.
This is it.
~ Great.
~ You ready? ~ Shall I spoon it on there for you? ~ Yeah, do you mind? ~ If you tip it.
Look at that.
Look at the colours on it, though.
Lovely green little flecks in there.
Smells incredible.
You cooked that one to perfection, mate, I'm telling you that right now.
~ There you go.
~ Thanks.
~ And now the finishing touches.
Let's see how the Faith styles it up at the very end.
~ So we've got some chips, you said.
~ Yes.
~ Round the edge.
~ Have you enjoyed this? ~ So much.
I love it.
I could do this all the time.
~ Then we've got the parsley from a great height, remember.
~ Yeah.
Beautifully done.
~ And then those lovely olives.
~ Gorgeous! ~ There you go.
~ Actually, I'll take that one.
~ Service! It's a little-known dish with important ties for Paloma.
But what will our diners make of her traditional bacalhau a bras? ~ I like that.
Mm! ~ The, um, texture is amazing.
Crunchy chips and with a tender fish.
~ You've made it.
~ Yeah.
~ You've cooked it, you've tried it.
I've increased my body size by three times.
Oh, my word! That is incredible.
That is incredible.
Are you pleased? I am pleased.
I'm gonna do it a lot now.
Ladies and gentlemen, Paloma Faith's bacalhau a bras.
~ They're liking it! ~ Of course.
Our cafe crowd have devoured some gorgeous weekend feasts.
Sticky Chinese ribs, Jimmy's home-made craft beers and Paloma's bacalhau a Bras.
If you want to join the feast, you can get the recipes and more at channel4.
com/fridaynightfeast
~ Who's hungry? ~ Yeah! Because we're passionate about cooking up great food to share with friends and family.
~ Lovely flavour.
~ That's delicious.
~ That's really, really good.
We've invited down a whole host of very special mates ~ Hello! ~ .
.
to help out in the kitchen.
It's getting hot, it's getting hot, it's getting hot! Because the weekends are for feasting.
~ Thank food it's Friday! ~ It's Friday! ~ On tonight's menu ~ It's kind of epic.
It's an amazing weekend feast.
I'm making super-tasty finger-licking sticky Chinese ribs.
Oh, you can even taste the smoke.
Oh, my God! That is a big, juicy, incredible rib.
I'll show you how to make your own beer in a DIY microbrewery.
My first batch of craft beer.
My version of pale ale.
And we're off on a food-waste fight.
This time, we're going nuts for a source of sustainable, delicious food that's currently being binned.
There is one meat that is really doing you proud at the moment in your pies.
~ Yeah.
Squirrel.
~ Argh! Kerryann, my love, we need one more tea out there, please.
I've already made yours.
What, for a customer? As usual, my right-hand woman, Kerryann, is helping me out in the kitchen.
~ Have you got sugar lumps as well? ~ What did you say about my lumps? Have you gut su? We've got a menu of fabulous feasts for you to try this weekend.
And joining us in the caff, a singer whose powerful voice and eccentric style has won her a legion of loyal fans.
~ Surprise! ~ It's Paloma Faith.
~ Good to see you.
~ Hello, you gorgeous girl.
~ I'm so excited to see you.
~ Thank you.
Me too.
~ Welcome to Southend Pier.
~ It's like Blind Date.
You know, when the screen goes back.
~ So you love your food? ~ Yeah.
It's an issue.
~ Have you always cooked? I've always been a massive foodie.
My first word was actually choc-choc before mama or dada.
~ Ah! ~ It was choc-choc.
Apparently, I looked at a packet of chocolate buttons.
Like, I've had a lot of different cultures growing up because I was brought up in Hackney, which is like The bit that I was in was mainly African-Caribbean and Turkish community.
And my father's Spanish and my stepfather's Chinese.
~ Wow! ~ And my mum's from, like, a rural part of England.
~ Great.
~ She'd have chickens? ~ I used to go to my grandma's house and they'd go, "Which chicken are we having for dinner?" And I'd point at it and they'd go, "Wait outside.
" And I'd just hear it rraawwkkk! ~ And then that would be dinner.
~ That's brilliant.
~ I'm quite hands on and I love cooking and most of the people who taught me to cook in my life have been male.
So between my Chinese stepdad and my Spanish father And I've got Italian family, I was like ~ Little bits from all over.
~ You are the person for doing a dinner party? Yeah.
And I've done, like, seven years' Christmas in a row.
But how lucky for your boyfriend to get cooked for.
He actually told me recently that, um, it was He realised it was you that he fell in love with because everything that I do is, basically, from your books.
He wants his money back.
He didn't give me any in the first place.
I think just, like, the most people I've ever cooked for is about 14, 15 people round at mine once.
And I felt like it was a big achievement.
Well, today, you're gonna be cooking for this lot.
It's gonna be the biggest achievement.
OK, you two, er, it's time for today's first feast.
You're gonna love it.
It's finger-licking good.
It's sticky Chinese ribs.
You up for a bit of that? ~ Totally.
Let's get messy.
~ Let's get messy.
Before they get stuck in, I'm gonna show you how to make it at home.
I love making these ribs.
It's really, really good fun to do.
It's kind of epic.
It's an amazing weekend feast.
Whenever you [do this.]
, it silences a room and people just get stuck in and go a little bit Fred Flintstone about their eating.
I love it.
So first of all, we've got the beautiful pork.
I'm using lovely free-range pigs here.
You can see it's the ribs.
It's the long cut with the belly attached as well.
So you're gonna get loads of sweet meat.
These racks weigh about two kilos each and will feed 12 to 16 people.
So just get yourself two long pieces of tin foil.
Get your pork like this.
Season the ribs all over with salt and the star of the show, Chinese five-spice.
This stuff is incredible.
It's guaranteed sort of big beautiful flavour.
It's traditionally a grind of cinnamon, cloves, Chinese star anise, black pepper, fennel seeds and it just smells and tastes fantastic.
Roast the pork ribs curve upwards, so that the meat on the underside is bathing in all those juices.
This is important, this wrapping part, OK? Because in the belly and the ribs, it works a lot, OK, so it's gonna be super-tough.
But, when you slow cook it, it allows the flavour to penetrate and the kind of steam hydrates the sinews and then it kind of breaks and becomes sticky and gorgeous and tender.
Cook them in the oven at 160-degrees centigrade for three hours.
Next, barbecue sauce.
To create a spiced Asian version of this classic, finely slice three red onions and soften in a hot pan.
Then add some more of that Chinese five-spice and a few extra whole star anise.
So look at this, star anise.
The flavour of the inner and outer part is just incredible, quite liquoricey.
But it's just got so much more than that.
Really, really integral to Chinese and Vietnamese cooking.
Just gonna put six or so star anise in there.
We just want to fry off these onions so they're super, super, super sweet.
Add eight tablespoons of apple juice with six spoons of hoisin sauce, four of honey, two of ketchup and two tablespoons of rice-wine vinegar.
All we need to do now is just simmer it away for a couple of minutes, to go thick and shiny and gorgeous.
Remove the star anise and liquidise the sauce in a blender.
Then pass through a sieve for an ultra-silky consistency.
I just use a spoon, just to move around.
Delicious.
Three hours later, the ribs come out of the oven, ready for stage two.
This is the really, really exciting bit.
Let's have a look what we got for our money.
Just tear away the tin foil.
Look at the juice that's come out.
So much juice.
I'm gonna pour these juices, all of them, into our barbecue sauce.
That is so good.
With the juices added, the sauce will need to reduce down until it's thick and glossy.
So let's do the fun bit.
Let's glaze our beautiful pork.
So get your DIY skills ready and raring to go.
And let's have a little paint up.
Cover every inch of your ribs with the sweet sticky glaze.
It's gonna seal in the moisture and give us incredible flavour.
I'm gonna whack this in the oven at about 200.
So a little bit hotter now.
In she goes.
Now That's in the oven.
That's gonna go beautiful, shiny, sticky and glazed and there's one more little tip that's an optional extra.
To really give these ribs the edge, I want to inject some serious smoky flavours.
So how do you turn an everyday home oven into a tiny miniature smoker? You're gonna need a metal [sieve and some barbecue wood chips.]
, available online or from your garden centre.
Get it going, it takes seconds.
As soon as you see a bit of flame happening, we're laughing.
What that's gonna do is create a little smoker in your oven.
It doesn't create loads of smoke outside the oven but any chilli, any soup, any rice dish, any curry that you do will be transformed by this little trick.
We blow it out.
In we go.
The fan's pushing that smoke around.
The cinders in there will just keep kind of smouldering away.
And that is a great tip.
Ten minutes later and you're ready to get those beautiful smoky ribs out of the oven.
This is a show-stopper.
This is gonna put smiles on people's faces.
I've got a massive platter like this, so let's get it happening.
I'm serving my ribs with fluffy fragrant rice.
Now you're ready to carve up.
Look how tender.
Oh, my Lord! Just look into there.
Hoo-hoo! Oh, you can even taste the smoke.
Oh, my God! Yeah, that's exactly what I want.
To garnish, just sprinkle with some finely sliced chillies, spring onions, radishes and coriander.
Why do you want this? Because it's just contrast, colour and freshness.
And that, my friends, is beautiful.
Sticky Chinese ribs in all of its beauty.
A mouth-watering feast of slow-cooked glossy ribs.
Tender meat, just falling off the bone, liberally glazed with that dark sweet and sour barbecue sauce.
That is a big, juicy, incredible rib, right there.
Big mess, big flavours and a big weekend feast.
Let's just tear a little bit of that meat, bit of the rice, bit of chilli, bit of radish.
In the gob.
Mm! Oh, my God! Big, insane flavour, like that.
I hope everyone in the cafe loves these as much as I do.
Amazing.
Paloma, would you like to go and feed the people? ~ Yeah.
Who wants some of this? ~ Me! ~ Don't be polite.
~ No! No forks allowed.
Fingers only.
~ Hands.
~ And look, he's in.
What do you think? ~ Amazing.
~ Right, I'm taking it back.
~ No! ~ It's too good.
~ Wow! Darling, go in, fingers and all.
Just get it in your gob.
~ There you are.
~ Mm! ~ Oh! That is something else.
~ I've got so much in my mouth.
~ You can't even talk.
It's a taste sensation.
I'm so happy! I couldn't be happier.
My sticky ribs are hitting the spot.
But Paloma's here to cook today's special for the whole cafe.
What is the dish you have chosen and why? I came up with bacalhau a bras, which is a Portuguese thing.
Because, when I was little, my dad moved to Portugal, I used to, like, get on a plane by myself and go and visit him.
He took me once to this beach and it had, like, a little hut on it that this old lady lived in and you'd go in there and you'd say, "What are you cooking?" And she'd just give you whatever she had.
And then you'd pay her for it.
It's the mix of the fact that the food was so good and, like, home-cooked, with the fact that I thought it was so amazing as a kid just to, like, go to somebody's house and say, "Can you cook for us?" And, obviously, it's an interesting dish because it's essentially fries, ~ scrambled egg, onions and salt cod.
~ Yeah.
~ All mixed together.
~ Quite simple stuff.
~ For a lot of British people, they won't get it.
~ No.
~ But if you take it apart, it's kind of fish and chips.
As vague as your, er, memory was on that shack on the beach, er, we take our research really seriously and we've spent the last month trying to find it and we looked everywhere.
~ We used literally everything from local news crews, ~ Scoured the country.
~ .
.
bloggers, scouting for this particular place in this particular area you gave us.
~ It probably doesn't exist now.
~ The sad news is it closed two years ago.
~ Oh, so close.
~ But everyone on our journey gave us a name of someone that we should speak to about Because it's actually a very regional dish, this particular dish.
Maria de Lourdes Modesto is Portugal's answer to Delia Smith.
There's nothing she doesn't know about classic Portuguese cooking.
She's given me her recipe for bacalhau a bras.
A dish that celebrates Portugal's favourite ingredient, salt cod.
It's been a staple of Portuguese cuisine for 500 years, even earning the nickname "fiel amigo," my faithful friend.
Me and you are gonna cook this and then I'm handing over to you because you have to cook for everyone in this cafe.
Save some room.
Next, we meet the pie pioneers who are challenging our views on what meat we can eat.
~ Oh! ~ That's squirrel.
~ It is delicious.
I think people think it's gamey.
That is not gamey.
That's a beautiful, rich, gorgeous pie.
And it gets a bit slapstick in the kitchen with the cheeky Paloma Faith.
I'd love to slap you round the face with it.
Here at our caff in Southend, we're tucking into a menu packed full of weekend feasts.
~ Still hungry? ~ Yeah! Singer Paloma Faith is here to cook for the whole cafe.
I'm gonna show her how to make her favourite meal from her childhood.
A Portuguese salt-cod dish called bacalhau a bras.
OK, this is a really interesting dish.
I'd never cooked it before.
I've tested it now several times.
It's delicious.
Portugal's leading authority on traditional regional cooking, Maria de Lourdes Modesto, has given us tips and the recipe.
You got salt cod, we're mixing chips, um, and eggs together.
~ Everyone's gonna go, "What?" But it's comfort food.
~ When you try it, ~ it's amazing, yes.
~ Yeah, so it starts over here.
This is salt cod.
Drying cod in salt is an ancient way of preserving it and gives the fish a firmer texture and a sweeter flavour.
Can you smell it? It sort of smells a little bit kind of funky.
I think I would love to slap you round the face with this.
~ Go on then, come on.
~ Would you? Ugh! Go on.
Violate me back.
~ I don't want ~ Go on.
~ Your face is too pretty.
Can I just do the bottom? OK.
Boom! Anyway, if you go down to lovely sort of Portuguese, Spanish, even Italian delis, they will sell this stuff.
Could you use the same cod that you would get in a Caribbean shop? ~ Yes.
Absolutely.
~ Same thing? I've soaked the salt cod overnight to rehydrate it and remove some of the salt.
Next, we're gonna gently poach it with herbs, lemon and shallots.
I'll use some parsley stalks.
If you can chop those up for me, my darling.
~ Like this? ~ Yeah.
The stalks, they've got a nice flavour actually.
I'm gonna put a bit of lemon zest in there.
That obviously freshens it up a little bit.
It's a very big knife, this is, just to do some stalks.
Mind your finger.
Yeah.
I wouldn't want to be responsible for cutting your lovely finger.
I know you're a good cook but your chopping skills are a bit No, I told you.
The knife's a bit big for me.
~ This is cross chopping.
~ OK.
~ And it's the safest chop in the world because you can actually chop like a chef within 30 seconds.
~ But it goes everywhere.
~ No, but then swoop it back together again.
OK.
~ Like a plasterer.
~ Shall I have a go? ~ Go on.
~ Have a jig up.
Nice.
~ Cross crop Cross chopping.
~ Cross chopping.
While Paloma struggles to sharpen up her knife skills, we're off to Leicestershire for our next fight against food waste.
We're a nation of supermarket shoppers and, when it comes to choosing meat, we've all got used to convenient plastic-wrapped produce.
But this also means we've got used to the narrow range of what's on offer.
We live in a society now where your meat comes in a little tiny box, with cellophane over the top.
The chops are all the same size.
~ Chicken, beef, pork, lamb.
~ We are limited.
~ That's it.
We are limited in the availability of different meat.
But there are plenty of other meats out there and we've heard about one type of delicious wild meat that's currently being binned.
The cooking that has been for thousands of years has utilised all healthy wild animals.
All of them.
You hit the nail on the head when you said "utilised".
Using everything.
We seem to live in a world now where we think we can just waste stuff and there's one meat that I think is well worth investigating.
~ Mr Squirrel.
~ Mr Squirrel.
~ Tasty little blighter.
~ Oh, yes.
Fluffy grey squirrels may seem cute but they cause £10 million worth of damage to our woodlands every year, killing trees and seeing off our native red squirrels too.
They're responsibly culled to keep numbers down but, because we don't eat them, the meat is left to rot.
Eating squirrel isn't just about some sort of fad or because it's unusual.
It's important that we eat it because it's using a resource that's actually going to waste.
It's out there, it's available and at the moment, quite frankly, it's all going in the bin.
It seems senseless that so much nutritious wild meat is going to waste.
We always used to eat squirrel in the UK, right through to the 1950s.
But is the great British public ready for a squirrel comeback? Time for some market research.
We're off to meet some pioneering producers who already cook with it.
Nice, Jim.
~ Hi, guys.
I hear this is the home of award-winning pies.
~ It is, yeah.
Kath, Phil and daughter Aimi, run a six-acre homestead, raising animals and living off the land.
They found it outrageous that good meat was being binned.
So just over a year ago, novice cook Kath started using squirrel in her pies.
Now their walls are plastered with awards and I'm hoping that their artisanal produce could signify the start of a squirrel-eating revolution.
~ Look at that.
OK, that is ~ That's a big old pie.
That is unbelievable.
What's that? It says, ~ "Wild squirrel and Madeira pate.
" ~ Wild squirrel and Madeira.
Yeah.
~ Never tried anything like that.
~ Do you want to try? ~ Yeah.
~ Look at that.
~ Oh, it smells incredible.
It's like being in Provence or something lovely like that.
Ooh! Delicious, tasty, sweet.
~ Yeah.
~ Really, really good.
Which is getting me very excited about the squirrel pie.
~ Yeah.
Shall we have a cook-up then? ~ Oh, cook it first? ~ Yeah, and then you can try the pie.
~ She's keeping us hanging on.
Come on then, darling.
While they get started in the kitchen, I'm heading to the woods.
As a farmer, I know first-hand just how much of a pest grey squirrels can be.
This is just perfect habitat for grey squirrels, though, isn't it? ~ Yeah, absolutely.
~ But they do an incredible amount of damage.
~ It's unbelievable.
~ Do you see much damage? ~ There's one or two bits.
A bit there where they've been munching away on the bark.
~ Look at that.
~ If they strip that bark completely off a tree, ~ the tree will die.
~ So if they ring bark the tree, ~ that's gonna kill the tree.
~ That's dead.
And that's happening all across our woodlands, thousands and thousands of squirrels doing it.
A hidden little terror army, destroying our natural vegetation.
~ These squirrels will be culled.
So the meat will go in the bin? ~ Yeah.
Gamekeepers and people are culling them and throwing them in the hedge bottom.
That's what I love about what you're doing because you're giving a solution to a problem.
These are a pest.
They have to be controlled but let's not waste them.
Let's not throw the meat away, it's great meat.
Yeah, it is really good meat.
Really good flavour.
Rich, gamey.
It's incredible.
But tell me, on the packets, do you have to put "may contain nuts"? ~ No, we don't.
~ You should, that's a selling point.
In a farmhouse kitchen, Kath and her daughter Aimi are showing me how to put all that squirrel to good use.
~ You've got the squirrel here.
~ Slow-cooked squirrel, yeah.
Let's just have a look at the squirrel body here.
The meat is so tender, it's unbelievable.
Where do all the squirrels come from? Well, we buy a lot in from exotic-meat suppliers.
~ And we also have local people that ~ Bring them round.
.
.
if they've caught or shot a squirrel, bring them round for us.
Whether sourced locally or from online suppliers, all Kath's meat comes from wild culled squirrels that would normally go to waste.
What's the response from your everyday customer? Some people, they can't believe that you'd put squirrel in a pie.
This is what I don't understand because, I reckon, if you took your everyday British person and you showed them, like, standard high-intensity commercial chicken production, how they live, how they're fed and what that environment's like, and then you took them to a squirrel up a tree, eating on nuts and stuff, ~ there is no comparison between the two lives, is there? ~ No.
Do you ever have someone that's a complete naysayer, like, "Oh, no, no, no," and then they try it and they're like, ~ "Oh, God! It's lovely, innit?" ~ Yeah, we do.
They do try it and change their mind.
~ Really surprised.
~ Have you got regulars? Yeah, we do.
We have regular customers.
And wherever we go, like farmers' markets, we sell out every time.
~ Really? ~ We do, yeah.
It's great to hear that Kath's pies are winning people over and that the great British public are willing to give squirrel a go.
Look at that.
That is a very beautiful British pie.
~ It's not quite finished yet.
~ No? ~ Oh, my Lord! ~ This little fella here.
And then we just pop him on the top.
Now that's the finished pie.
This is proper love, care and attention, innit, right here? Time to pop these beauties in the oven.
Something's telling me this squirrel pie is gonna be worth the wait.
~ Jim, come and have a look at this.
~ Oh, look.
So, mate, we got two pies here.
All made with love from me and the girls.
Hot pie.
And here, it's kind of like a pork pie but it's a squirrel pie.
~ So we go cold first.
Look at that.
~ Oh, my Lord! ~ Would you like to try some, sir? ~ Oh, yes please.
Cheers.
Cor! That is great, isn't it? So tasty.
~ I've got my mouth full, so I can't say anything.
~ It's the best way.
Now, wait for it.
Ooh! That's the nicest thing you've ever given me.
~ Ooh! ~ Oh! ~ That's squirrel.
~ It is delicious.
I think people think gamey.
That is not gamey, that's a beautiful, rich, ~ gravy-kissed, gorgeous pie.
~ Do you know, I want everyone to enjoy this.
~ Mm! ~ We should all be eating squirrel.
Phil, Kath and Aimi are pioneers of the squirrel-eating revival but there are only so many pies Kath can bake.
So we need to find a wider audience for this excellent wasted meat.
Here's a thing.
We have to get out the mindset that we were put on earth to eat meat that is chicken, beef, pork, lamb and that's it.
It never used to be like that.
We need to get back to how our ancestors would feed their families and utilise incredible healthy wild food.
If it's a pest, you're doing the farmers, or whoever, a favour anyway.
I reckon the answer lies in restaurants.
That's how the nose-to-tail meat revolution took off.
I want to see if we can get innovative chefs to put squirrel on their menus.
I think, if we get hold of a bunch of squirrels, get some chefs together, we should get in the kitchen and cook up some squirrel.
~ Let's spread the word.
~ See it in different ways.
See what happens.
~ Let's do it.
Thanks.
Fantastic pies.
~ Lovely to meet you too.
~ And you.
But first, time to see how Kath's pies go down with our cafe diners.
Fancy a squirrel pie? ~ It is lovely.
~ Really good.
~ No, it's nice.
It is genuinely nice.
Next, hop into action with some home brewed beer in my DIY microbrewery.
Here we go.
Let the good times roll.
While Paloma gets her hands dirty in the kitchen.
Get the action.
I love it.
On Southend Pier, we're serving up delicious weekend feasts.
~ Are you excited? ~ Yeah! ~ Are you still hungry? ~ Yeah! Our diners have been enjoying sticky Chinese ribs ~ and squirrel pie.
~ No, it's nice.
It is genuinely nice.
Now back to today's special, Paloma Faith's bacalhau a bras.
A Portuguese comfort-food dish, inspired by childhood visits to her dad's home near Lisbon.
Made with fries, salt cod, eggs and olives.
It's been soaked.
It's now poaching.
~ Just 15 minutes and then we'll flake it.
~ Is that boiling water? ~ Just poaching.
So just below boiling.
~ I don't know what poaching is.
Boiling is 101 degrees.
Poaching will be about 95.
Just tiny bubbles maybe.
For the base of the dish, we're gonna gently fry some sliced onions until sweet and golden.
Next, we're onto the garnish.
The classic thing to do on your dish is just to do this at the end.
~ Some olives.
Do you remember that? ~ Yeah.
~ OK.
That's fine and I've got no issues with that.
But I've kind of taken it on to the next level.
I want to transform these olives with a zingy dressing that will really bring them to life.
Sprinkle in some dried chilli.
~ How much? ~ Er, just a nice generous pinch.
I'm gonna cut you up some parsley.
Can you put about two tablespoons of that red wine vinegar in? ~ What, just guess? Estimate? ~ Yeah.
I trust you.
You're that kind of cook.
Lovely Portuguese olive oil.
Put about six tablespoons in there.
And then I want to get some beautiful Paloma Faith's hands in there and just give it a little massage-ay.
Get the action.
And if you can just mix it up with your hands, get physical with it You like that about cooking, you don't like mucking about, do you? I love it.
Do you want it all squished together? Yeah.
I guess the thing I'm trying to do is, in that salty olive is a really fragrant, delicious olive.
So after about 15 minutes, this will taste heavenly.
I mean, actually, try one now and see the difference even straightaway.
~ So we knocked it back, right? ~ Yeah, it's so much less salty.
You could put fennel seeds in, a little garlic in there.
You can of riff it.
You can chop it up and make tapenade.
You can throw it into all sorts of lovely fish dishes.
But that's a nice little preparation, right there.
The salt cod has been gently poached for about 15 minutes.
I bet they wouldn't have wasted this back in the day.
Just have a little taste of the old stock.
Try that because that's a really lovely clear broth, if you put ~ That's delicious.
~ If you put peas into that and kind of noodles.
I don't know what the Portuguese would have done with it but I don't think they would have thrown that away.
~ No, that's like a good fish stock, isn't it? ~ It is really good.
The fish now needs to be skinned, de-boned and flaked.
So this is kind of what the salt does, if I may.
It starts to flake.
~ Can you see how that? ~ Yeah.
~ It's like a deck of cards, almost.
~ Look at that.
~ Mm! ~ So that is what we want.
It's the salting that gives the cod this firm texture, meaning that the flakes hold together beautifully in the finished dish.
If you can put it into here, like that and I'll start chopping it up.
Do you sort of do Sunday dinners for your mum and stuff like that? ~ Aunties and uncles? ~ I think my mum would like it if I did more Sunday dinners for her.
~ Is she a good cook? ~ She gets upset if I say she's not a good cook.
~ So I have to say yes.
~ OK.
So she's a really good cook, then, Paloma? Olives are done.
I think we just let that do its job.
~ OK.
~ Would you like a cup of tea? Glass of wine? A spritz? Ginger beer? ~ I think What do they have in Lisbon? ~ Port.
~ Maybe we should have that.
~ Let's have a glass of port.
It's Portugal, innit? ~ Just the one only.
~ Right.
While they knock a few back in the kitchen, I've got my own tipple on the go with my DIY microbrewery.
Draught beers made by small independent brewers have taken the UK by storm.
So why not make your own? There are a few stages to master but, once you've got the hang of it, you could be brewing your own bespoke beer for less than 50p a pint.
To get started, I'm using an old tea urn, a cool box and a few bits of kit from a home-brewer supplier.
A lot of people think making beer is either really technical or you need a great big factory, there's a lot of know-how, or some sort of alchemy.
But you can make really great craft beer with a few of these simple ingredients.
Step one is all about mixing malted barley and hot water.
This is called "the mash".
The first bit of kit I'm gonna build is something called a mash tun.
You've all probably been into a pub called the Mash Tun and there's good reason for that.
It's because, without this bit of kit, you won't make beer.
For my mash tun, I'm using an insulated cool box to mix the barley and hot water.
But I'll need to separate the liquid out at the end.
So I'm adding a tap to the side and building a frame out of copper piping.
I've cut some slits through the pipes so it will act like a sieve.
Look at that.
This is gonna sit at the bottom of my cool box.
So as the fluid drains down through here, that little frame will allow all the liquid out but keep the solid in.
Right, that's the mash tun made.
Time to make the mash and for that I need to put the kettle on.
I want to make myself a batch of traditional British pale ale, so I'm gonna use pale malted barley as the base for my beer.
But the beauty of home brewing is that you can experiment with different flavours just by using different malts.
Now you start adding the pale malt.
Wow! That just smells wonderful.
Let's turn it off.
Give that a lovely stir before I leave it to sit for an hour to work its magic.
Now, the reason I've done it in an icebox is because it's insulated.
It's gonna hold that temperature and that's gonna allow that mash to develop.
An essential ingredient in beer, these gorgeous fragrant hops are the dried flowers of the hop plant.
I've bought myself a few varieties online.
In Britain, we've got some wonderful hops.
That's why I want to use good old classics like Fuggles, or East Kent Goldings.
It just smells incredible.
I've got the malted barley liquid back into the tea urn.
Now I can add the hops and leave it to boil.
After an hour, my beer is almost ready but I want to add a citrusy twist.
Lemon peel in.
Grapefruit, that goes in.
And last, I'm gonna add my East Kent Goldings.
These wonderful English hops.
And at this stage, it's all about the aromas.
The hops before were all about bitter.
Now it's about flavour.
In you go, my friends.
Make this a beautiful beer.
Once the boil is complete, you need to cool it down quickly to prevent any bacteria from ruining your brew.
To do this, we use a coil of copper pipe.
Attach a length of tubing to each end, so cold water can pass through the copper coil.
Time to put in my copper coil.
Running cold water through the pipes brings the temperature down super-fast.
When it drops to 20 degrees, you're ready for the next stage.
Now it's all about the alcohol.
And, for that, we need yeast.
These guys are Mother Nature's little helpers.
I'm gonna pop them in and they'll hit that warm water and they'll start to hydrate and wake up.
And they're gonna convert the sugars into alcohol.
Right.
That's perfect.
So lid on.
You see this sticking out at the top? Well, this is a little airlock.
It allows the carbon dioxide out but doesn't let any oxygen in.
That's really important.
And this bucket now can sit in a dark corner, room temperature, to ferment away.
After a week of fermenting, your brew is ready to bottle.
It smells like the night after a student party.
It's that real sort of beery smell.
I've got rid of the sediment and I'm adding a pinch of sugar for extra fizz.
And then that's it.
Job done.
Here we go.
Let the good times roll.
In you go.
Look at that.
That's perfect.
Let's get a little production line going here.
Hot off the press, my first batch of craft beer.
My version of pale ale.
Great British grains, fantastic English hops.
I can't wait to taste these.
Gonna leave them for about two weeks in storage, somewhere nice and cool and dark, and then time to open and taste.
Two weeks later and it's the moment of truth.
Hopefully, there's gonna be a bit of a fizz in it.
Ready? ~ Let's get that ~ Ahh! ~ Paloma, would you like a beer, darling? ~ Taste this.
See what you think of this, my love.
Do you want to open your bottles? ~ Yeah, pop away.
~ Cheers.
~ Oh! ~ It sounds like Christmas! ~ That's light-tasting, isn't it? ~ Yeah.
~ I like the peel.
~ Yeah.
That does taste like proper beer.
That's why my nostrils are flaring.
~ What do you reckon, guys? How do you like the beer? ~ It's nice.
~ Yeah! 15 quid for 40 pints.
All the fellas' eyes are like, "What?!" ~ Cheers, guys.
~ Cheers! ~ Cheers! Mate, I'm really, really I mean, from the days that me and you worked in my dad's pub, I never thought I'd see you making your own beer.
That is delicious.
Paloma, don't get too comfortable, darling, because the next course is yours, baby.
The service is getting slower.
But you're doing it in style with those stilettos on.
Don't you worry.
Back to today's special and time for everyone's favourite, chips.
I'm doing them in a traditional style, cut super fine.
This is much smaller than your regular sort of chip from a little fish and chip shop, isn't it? Um, we call them shoestring fries.
So you can do it by knife skills, like this, or we have the mandolin here.
It's not like a mandolin in your game.
~ Hm! ~ So it's like that.
It's quite nice for doing the job.
It's pretty efficient at it.
I'm cooking two batches.
This first batch, I only want to cook for a few minutes until the chips have softened and very lightly coloured.
Then leave to drain.
The final ingredient is the velvety coating of the soft scrambled egg.
So Paloma's whipping some up ready to fold into the fish and onions.
And if you can stir for me, I'm gonna pour this egg in.
Oh, it's so beautiful.
At this point, I think it's important to take the pan off the heat, so you get beautiful soft sheets of eggs rippling through the dish.
~ See how those little curds? See, the little skirts and curds.
~ Yeah.
I'm now gonna put in the fries and this is the bit ~ that's gonna really weird local Brits out.
~ It looks so good.
But this is a really authentic, intelligent dish.
And now I've made it, I want everyone to try it.
~ Look at that.
~ I'm so happy we did this.
Next, we find out if top UK chefs are willing to serve up a woodland treat in their restaurants.
Let's not forget that having squirrel on the menu is exciting.
I've shown her the ropes but how will Paloma handle ~ cooking for the whole cafe? ~ How many onions was it? I don't know where the whisker is.
Weekends are for feasting and here on Southend Pier we've been doing just that.
~ Hands up if you're still hungry.
~ Yeah! We've got the gorgeous Paloma Faith in our kitchen cooking today's special.
Portuguese bacalhau a bras.
She loved it as a child.
And now I'm gonna show her how to serve a perfect portion.
~ So shall we plate up then? ~ I'm dying for it.
~ I think we're there.
~ So if you could ~ Look at the desperation in my eyes.
~ I know.
If you just pour it over, hang it over here and then I'll just edge it in myself.
Time to add my second batch of matchstick fries, cooked till crispy and golden.
I'm just gonna sprinkle ~ Oh, beautiful.
~ .
.
this around here.
And this is quite traditional to do it like this.
And then the parsley.
~ From a great height.
~ Well, I don't it from a great height because I'm pretentious, it's just to distribute it nice and evenly.
~ And that's it.
~ It looks beautiful.
~ If I may.
~ Oh, you so may.
~ Take your weapon.
~ Taking me back.
Oh, wow! It's it.
I feel like I'm on the beach in the hut again.
It's naughty, innit? I mean, that is an amazing Portuguese comfort-food dish.
Thank you for bringing it.
I'd never done it before.
~ So good.
Thanks for doing it.
I'm going in.
~ They're all still hungry.
So I'm gonna retract from the kitchen.
Um, 30 times that.
~ It's coming! ~ Is that all right? All Paloma's got to do is remember and recreate the recipe.
How many onions was it? I don't know where the whisker is.
These are gonna be a while, aren't they? I'm trying here.
Struggling through.
It's a lot of people to feed.
While Paloma cracks on with her dish, it's back to our food fight, where we're trying to stop a delicious wild food from being wasted.
Tens of thousands of grey squirrels are culled every year in Britain and most of that great meat is left to rot or sent to landfill.
Not only is that a crime ethically but we're also missing out on some fabulous food.
We're not promoting we should go out and kill more squirrels.
That's already happening.
What I want to see is actually utilising what's being wasted.
With global populations going up and food prices in crisis, it seems crazy that we waste this source of sustainable wild meat.
We need to broaden our horizons beyond the usual mass-produced meats and I think the way to do that is via restaurants.
I've just noticed just recently, in the last couple of months, I've seen wild boar and all these kind of, like, more unusual things.
You know, they're popping up on menus all around London.
As soon as they get in London, they start to travel around the rest of the country.
I think it's a really interesting time because customers are buying this stuff.
Wild meats are on trend, so I've called up a band of innovative chefs to see if they'd consider this wasted meat for their restaurants.
So this is gonna be exciting.
We're all cooking squirrel.
With me today is Martin Morales, founder of Ceviche, the first Peruvian restaurant in the UK to bring us the food of the Andes.
And he's no stranger to cooking wild meats.
~ Peruvian food.
~ Yeah.
~ Do you come across squirrel? We've got rabbit and we've got guinea pig.
So in the Andes of Peru, we cook with guinea pig.
It's a delicacy there and it's been cooked for thousands of years.
So I can't see why we can't do that more with other meats here.
Martin is taking inspiration from a Peruvian speciality, picante de conejo, a spicy braised rabbit dish that he's reworking to try with squirrel.
I mean, I actually have to say, Martin, having squirrel on one of your menus alongside, you know, suckling pigs ~ and, you know, offal and stuff, that would work.
~ Absolutely.
~ It would work.
~ We use beef heart, we use rabbit.
So, yeah, of course.
Next is Rakesh Ravindran Nair.
He's head chef of The Cinnamon Club, an Indian restaurant that regularly serves game and other unusual meats.
Do you know what? I shouldn't say it too loudly ~ but I'm the most excited about your dish ~ Really? .
.
because I love a curry.
And I think squirrel and curry, it could be a match made in heaven.
Rakesh will be giving his squirrel the tandoor treatment.
He's tenderised the meat with pineapple juice and marinated it with Rajasthani spices, ginger and garlic.
I know it's a stupid question, do you have squirrels in India? ~ Plenty of them, yes.
~ You have lots of different species of squirrel? ~ Do you have traditions of cooking them? ~ I'm not.
You have some mental block against, less common animals like squirrels.
I think it was the same thing about veal a few years ago.
People had a mental block against veal and not eating it.
~ Yeah.
~ But these days, veal is quite popular as beef.
We're being hosted by the Golden Fleece in Leicester, where head chef Jack Morley champions locally sourced food.
So what [are you gonna do to the squirrels? Um, I'm doing.]
some barbecue squirrel enchiladas with smoked bacon and barbecue sauce.
And what is it about the meat that, for you as a chef, is gonna be great for this dish? I just think it's so tender, beautiful in the enchiladas, yeah.
~ Yeah.
~ Very tasty.
Squirrel meat is nutritious and low in fat.
Each chef is trying different techniques and different flavours to make the most of it.
But there's still one place left to visit.
~ What's Essex doing? What is Essex doing? ~ OK.
~ First up, um, I've just sweated off some leeks.
~ Yeah.
Then I just hit it with a little wine.
The whole squirrel.
I put it in the oven for about five, six hours until it just falls away off the bone.
What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna hit that up with mascarpone cream, some Parmesan cheese and I'm gonna flake all of this meat off the bone.
And I'm gonna do it with tagliolini.
I normally use rabbit for this pasta recipe but I think the rich squirrel meat could really work.
Finish it with just a small little shake of Parmesan.
Time to test our creations and see if this wild meat is as versatile as I'd hoped.
This is a very cheap dish to make.
Leeks cost nothing.
Small amount of Parmesan.
The squirrel is cheap.
~ Do you like that? ~ Really good.
~ Right.
~ Next up, Jack's barbecue squirrel enchiladas.
~ Nice and tender meat.
~ A little bit of Mexico in the middle of the countryside.
~ Oh, yeah.
~ Brilliant.
~ Martin's Peruvian special is also a slow-cooked dish, packed with really robust flavours.
That just looks the business.
~ Martin, that's incredibly tender, bruv.
~ So much flavour in the meat.
That is Peruvian comfort food right there.
Right.
Let's go to India.
That's amazing.
That was making me feel like I had a big hug from a big old Peruvian nonna, you know.
But this is completely different.
The meat has got more texture to it.
~ Delicious.
~ Oh! Those flavours, on that squirrel.
Boys, a sterling job, thank you all very much for doing this.
I guess the question we've got to ask, would the customers buy it? The squirrel meat has certainly stood up to some rigorous recipe testing but does it mean it would work in our restaurants? How about, in the next month, let's try and get it on the menus, specials, and just see what happens? At the end of the day, there's only one person ~ that's gonna choose if this works or not.
~ Yeah.
~ That's the customer.
~ Are you up for it? ~ Definitely.
~ Me too.
~ Let's do it.
~ Let's see what the public think.
~ Yeah.
Back in the cafe, I'm cooking up my squirrel ragu for the diners.
I've trialled it in my restaurants and it's gone down a storm.
Jamie, how have the guys fared that were trying all the dishes out? The young chef at the pub sold out every time he's put it on the menu.
Er, Martin at Ceviche, er, and his other restaurant, has it on the specials board and it's sold out every time he's done it.
And Rakesh at The Cinnamon Club, he's had a great time with it.
The one thing they all said was that dialogue between them and the customer, you know, was kind of like, "Really? Are you sure?" There's a debate going on but that's a good thing in a restaurant.
If you can win them over and they try it, the customers were happy.
Let's see what happens.
If people can get hold of it, they'll try it.
So squirrel has worked on the menus of all four restaurants.
And I hope this is the start of a wider trend to stop the waste and make the most of this tasty meat.
It's very nice.
And if you want to have a go at cooking with squirrel, you can.
John Mettrick is president of the Butchers' Association and can help you get your paws on some squirrel.
John, you're one of Britain's best butchers, OK, and you're, you're known around the country.
Customers coming to the shop, do you think they're gonna take it on? Yeah, I think they'll have a go.
I think the thing is there is a bit of a trend at the moment because people are a bit suspicious sometimes of conventional meat, whereas wild meat, they think, "Well, there's nothing gone into it, therefore I'm happy to eat it.
" You know, and they trust their butcher as well.
What we're saying to our members, and we've got a thousand spread over England and Wales, is if you get a customer asking for squirrel, source it, get it for them, because that's what butchers are.
We try and fit our customers up, we try our best for them and that's what we're looking to do.
~ So, guys, who would eat squirrel again? ~ Yes! The squirrel's a hit but there's one more course to serve to the cafe.
Paloma's Portuguese special.
~ Paloma, how are we doing? ~ It's looking amazing.
This is it.
~ Great.
~ You ready? ~ Shall I spoon it on there for you? ~ Yeah, do you mind? ~ If you tip it.
Look at that.
Look at the colours on it, though.
Lovely green little flecks in there.
Smells incredible.
You cooked that one to perfection, mate, I'm telling you that right now.
~ There you go.
~ Thanks.
~ And now the finishing touches.
Let's see how the Faith styles it up at the very end.
~ So we've got some chips, you said.
~ Yes.
~ Round the edge.
~ Have you enjoyed this? ~ So much.
I love it.
I could do this all the time.
~ Then we've got the parsley from a great height, remember.
~ Yeah.
Beautifully done.
~ And then those lovely olives.
~ Gorgeous! ~ There you go.
~ Actually, I'll take that one.
~ Service! It's a little-known dish with important ties for Paloma.
But what will our diners make of her traditional bacalhau a bras? ~ I like that.
Mm! ~ The, um, texture is amazing.
Crunchy chips and with a tender fish.
~ You've made it.
~ Yeah.
~ You've cooked it, you've tried it.
I've increased my body size by three times.
Oh, my word! That is incredible.
That is incredible.
Are you pleased? I am pleased.
I'm gonna do it a lot now.
Ladies and gentlemen, Paloma Faith's bacalhau a bras.
~ They're liking it! ~ Of course.
Our cafe crowd have devoured some gorgeous weekend feasts.
Sticky Chinese ribs, Jimmy's home-made craft beers and Paloma's bacalhau a Bras.
If you want to join the feast, you can get the recipes and more at channel4.
com/fridaynightfeast