Rick Stein’s Food Stories episode 6 - Wales
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00:00I've been a chef for over 50 years and I've come to realise that the food we eat tells
00:08a story about who we are.
00:13So I'm on a mission to find out what we all like to eat today.
00:17Oh, that is good.
00:19From our traditional dishes.
00:21Long live the Yorkshire pudding.
00:23To those we've made our own.
00:25I mean, that is multi-faceted Britain on one plate.
00:28Our meat producers.
00:29There you see a robot, he's picking them.
00:32I find a lot of craft beers too hoppy.
00:34I don't know why, but it tastes all right.
00:38Some of our best chefs.
00:40We're picking scurvy grass.
00:42Why pick it?
00:43We're eating buckwheat.
00:44Plus those keeping traditions alive.
00:46We've just got to finish.
00:48I have no hope.
00:49I'll see how food brings us together.
00:52Dig in!
00:53Lovely, that sort of hot garlic, fabuloso.
00:58And from my home in Padstow, I'll bring you great dishes of my own.
01:02Love stuff like this.
01:04So join me as I unearth the stories behind the food we all love to eat today.
01:21Coming from Cornwall, I've always felt a great affinity with the Celtic nations, so it's
01:26a thrill to be here today in Wales.
01:30I always think of Wales as a place having a great sense of national pride, great rugby,
01:38and I often think of those voice choirs singing Mithanwy, which absolutely touches the heart.
01:48Wales is a nation rich in both culture and natural resources.
01:53Its near 1,700 miles of coastline provide access to the bounties of the sea, while
02:00inland the rolling green hills are home to 10 million sheep.
02:07Today I'm exploring south Wales, from Monmouthshire in the east to Carmarthenshire in the west.
02:16I love coming to Wales.
02:18If you want to find some ancient, time-honoured agriculture or fishing,
02:23it's probably here you're going to find it.
02:25But that's not to say that it's not also very innovative.
02:28I think it attracts people that want to do interesting things on the land.
02:33I think it's a nation that's constantly evolving.
02:37Nowhere has change been more noticeable than in the national diet here.
02:42Just like the rest of the UK, meat-free dining has exploded in popularity in recent years.
02:49When I was cooking in the restaurant kitchen every day, veganism was virtually unheard of.
02:55But now, there's probably not a menu in the country that doesn't have a vegan dish on it,
03:00or more or less.
03:02I'm off today to meet Gaz Oakley, who in addition to being what's now called a plant-based cook,
03:08is also something of a sensation on YouTube.
03:12So I'm hoping he's going to show me how it all works.
03:16I'm sitting on a pumpkin.
03:18I can't believe I grew this pumpkin so big that I can sit on it.
03:21Once a chef working in Cardiff,
03:24Gaz now grows and cooks his own produce on his Monmouthshire smallholding.
03:30Videos of his escapades have racked up more than 50 million views online.
03:35That tastes absolutely mind-blowing.
03:39Today, he's taking a break from creating content
03:43to rustle up one of his savoury vegan specialities.
03:47Hello. Very nice to meet you, Gaz.
03:49Lovely to meet you. Thank you for coming.
03:51It's so beautiful. Look at that.
03:53Yes, the rolling Welsh hills.
03:55Great place to have a garden, I must say.
03:57So just tell me about your enthusiasm for vegetables.
04:00I've been a chef since I was 15, but since learning to grow my food,
04:04I feel like only now I'm an actual real chef,
04:07because I know where the food is coming from.
04:09I was just looking at your stuff on the internet.
04:11I mean, you're just so popular.
04:13You've got, like, 150 followers. Are they followers?
04:16I hope it's more than 150. I think it's more like 1.5 million.
04:20Oh, dear. Oh, well.
04:22What's a few zeros between friends?
04:25What do you put that down to, then?
04:27I think just trying to show plant-based cooking in a new light, really.
04:31Showing that it's not just salads and sort of rabbit food.
04:34I'm trying to create something really unique
04:37with the vegetables that I have on hand, so people are enjoying it.
04:41I think, really, it's your love of veg, so...
04:44Let's go and pick some onions, actually. OK.
04:46Let's get involved by here.
04:49The thing that interests me, really,
04:51is how do you get flavour in plant-based cooking?
04:53Because, I mean, a lot of flavour comes from, obviously, from meat.
04:56Yes. And from dairy products like cheese.
04:59Actually, I found it pretty easy.
05:01For example, these onions that we're picking now,
05:03I know that I'm just going to invest a little bit more time,
05:06sweat them out slowly, adding some good caramelisation to them,
05:09adding good depth to the flavour,
05:11and then I'll use some unusual ingredients that you wouldn't think to use.
05:14For example, things like miso paste. Yeah.
05:16That rich umami flavour is a good replacement to things like...
05:19Yeah, that would be right. To your stocks, for example.
05:22But I've got a few other tricks up my sleeve.
05:24So I think we'll pick some rhubarb now.
05:26I thought we were doing a savoury dish.
05:28Gaz really is the king of surprises.
05:31It turns out rhubarb is a pizza ingredient in his world.
05:35It forms part of the dishes making
05:37known as a Welsh garden rarebit pizza.
05:42He starts with the topping by frying onions and garlic,
05:46before adding celery salt, cumin, coriander and smoked paprika.
05:53Then it's that intriguing rhubarb, followed by sugar.
05:58Look at that caramelisation now.
06:00Chopped sage and thyme, miso paste and tomatoes
06:05for a real richness of flavour.
06:09Smells good.
06:15I'm very much enjoying all the vegetables he's cooking with,
06:18because although I'm not a plant-based person,
06:21I actually do love vegetables.
06:24I'm really looking forward to tasting it.
06:27There's no cheese in this recipe.
06:29It's vegan, remember.
06:31So Gaz makes a rarebit sauce from leeks and garlic
06:35fried in a plant-based butter.
06:38Mustard is added, along with flour,
06:41a splash of beer,
06:43plant milk,
06:45nutritional yeast
06:47and, again, miso paste.
06:50He flattens his dough, then tops with his rhubarb ketchup
06:55and some roasted yellow courgette and candied beetroot.
06:59Garden-fresh, of course.
07:01Before finally dolloping on the rarebit sauce
07:05and a sprinkling of garlic powder.
07:10After just 90 seconds in a blazing wood-fired oven...
07:14Look at that. Beautiful.
07:16..it's ready to garnish with a fresh herb citrus dressing
07:20and edible flowers.
07:22It's not like any pizza I've had before,
07:25but I can't wait to dig in.
07:27All right, Rick. Aye, that looks fabulous.
07:29My Welsh garden rarebit pizza.
07:35I'm nervous for you to try this.
07:40Well, I wouldn't know that that was all plant-based.
07:44That's the first thing.
07:45Right, that's good to know.
07:47I mean, I think that, you know, your rarebit, your cheese,
07:50you wouldn't know that wasn't cheese.
07:52The other point is the rhubarb goes.
07:54Yeah.
07:55And takes this lovely acidity in the back of it,
07:57which a pizza needs, I think. Yeah.
07:59So it's delicious.
08:00And it doesn't matter whether you're plant-based
08:02or whether you're not plant-based.
08:04If you know how to cook,
08:05you know how to please people with nice-tasting food.
08:08Thanks, Rick.
08:09If we had a glass of wine, I'd say cheers, but...
08:13There's no doubt Gaz has found ways to harness
08:17every possible flavour from his rich Welsh soil.
08:23On the Gower Peninsula, another innovative food entrepreneur
08:28is doing the same by using vast, nutrient-rich salt marshes
08:33to raise sheep with a distinctive and much sought-after taste.
08:38At high tide, this land is entirely covered by the sea,
08:42so I'm hoping farmer Dan Pritchard has enough fuel in the tank
08:46as we head out to visit his flock.
08:48The houses down there. Yeah.
08:50That's about five miles away. Oh, right.
08:52And then the trees up there, they're about three miles away.
08:55I suppose.
08:56Like, on a high tide, everything will be covered.
08:58Aha. And grass as well?
09:00Oh, yeah, grass, yeah. Amazing.
09:02Even this road will be covered.
09:03And it would seem getting swept out to sea
09:07isn't our only cause for concern.
09:10This place is littered with unexploded bombs
09:13from the Second World War.
09:15I just hope that these precious sheep are being careful
09:19where they step.
09:25So here's the marshes, Ricky. They're really great.
09:28Do they ever not blow down here? No.
09:31So how did you get the idea about salt marsh?
09:34I think we went on a family holiday down in northern France. Yeah.
09:37And we just saw that they were selling salt marsh lamb
09:40in all the restaurants around there at a bit of a premium
09:42and put two and two together and realised
09:44there's a salt marsh on our doorstep.
09:46And we started our company roughly 15 years ago
09:50and it just seems to be growing a little bit every year.
09:53Salt marsh lamb, or agneau de présale, as the French call it,
09:58is closely associated with the salt marshes
10:01around Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy.
10:03They were the first to have it designated
10:06as a protected regional produce
10:08and the Gower followed suit in 2021.
10:12If you can actually delineate something about it
10:15being of a special flavour,
10:17good luck to you if you can sell it and market it as such,
10:20because we all want different things to eat. Yeah.
10:23And I've tasted salt marsh lamb.
10:25I think it's got a very special flavour.
10:27Yeah, yeah, I definitely think it's a lot sweeter flavour
10:30compared to conventional lamb.
10:32The only thing that grows up here has to be salt tolerant,
10:35so you've got a lot of herbs and the tough fescue grasses,
10:38so obviously the lambs are eating that and having a different diet
10:41to give them a different flavour.
10:43How do you round them up with all these inlets there, then?
10:46Lots of walking, lots of dogs, lots of shouting and lots of hope.
10:51I love how Dan is making the most of this natural gift
10:55on his doorstep to tap into a modern food trend.
10:59I only wonder how he copes with his workplace being littered
11:03with buried live ordnance from World War II.
11:07Driving down here, there's these warning signs about bombs.
11:10The bomb squad come out a few times in the summer.
11:13They do find a few every now and again.
11:15It wouldn't be advisable to walk across there, then, would it?
11:18Or is it OK? You're fine on the marsh. On the marsh?
11:21On the sand, it might be a bit iffy, but...
11:24So do you ever get sheep blown off at all?
11:26None that I've seen so far. Well, that's really good.
11:36Dan's just gone off to... I'm not sure if he's rounding up his sheep.
11:40How can you round them up with all these gullies here?
11:43Gosh, what it must be like with a wind like this,
11:46ice cold in the middle of winter.
11:48But I often find that people are doing really quite rugged outdoor things
11:53and some of the happiest people I get to meet.
11:55It's clearly an epic challenge rearing animals out here,
11:59but the reward is in the taste of the meat.
12:02Gower Saltmarsh Lamb is so proud of this,
12:05they even have their own butcher.
12:08I'm hoping John can sort me out with a prime cut
12:11for a recipe I have in mind.
12:13What I'm going for this time is a rack of lamb, which is half the saddle,
12:17and that will form a really nice roasting joint.
12:20Very, very tender meat. The rack of lamb.
12:23The actual rack comes from behind the shoulder and in front of the loin,
12:27and that should leave us eight ribs then, if my maths is correct.
12:33Yeah, and that's where your rack will come from.
12:36Yeah, and this meat's so tender, isn't it? That's what I love about it.
12:40And then these are the French-trimmed racks.
12:43Great. I thought I was going to have to do that.
12:46Yeah.
12:47Voila, a beautiful rack of saltmarsh lamb.
12:52I can't wait to do it justice in my Padstow kitchen.
12:57I love the way it says Gower Saltmarsh Lamb on there,
13:00in case, you know, you thought it came from anywhere else.
13:03And what I'm going to do is just roast a rack of lamb,
13:06a classic French accompaniment, dauphinoise potatoes,
13:09a bit of gravy, got some nice beans and peas as a side veg.
13:13Simple.
13:14I've got a very simple way of making dauphinoise potatoes.
13:17I suppose you could call it a cheat's way,
13:19but cheating in cooking isn't always a bad thing.
13:22Put all your sliced potatoes into a pan like this
13:25and then add your milk...
13:31..your cream, and it's equal quantities of milk and cream,
13:35about 300ml of each.
13:37Garlic makes all the difference to this dish,
13:39so that's about one clove of garlic mashed up.
13:42Now then, nutmeg.
13:44You have to have nutmeg in a good dauphinoise.
13:46So I'm going to put about a quarter of a nutmeg in there,
13:49rasp that in.
13:51And seasoning.
13:53Salt and pepper added.
13:55It's left to bubble away for about ten minutes.
13:58Now I'm going to transfer to a gratin dish.
14:01Yeah, it's all going to go in.
14:03Fabulous.
14:05Cook the potatoes for 20 to 25 minutes at 180 degrees,
14:10and all that work, saved by not layering the dauphinoise,
14:14allows plenty of time to tackle the lamb.
14:17Just seasoning it first with a bit of salt and pepper.
14:23Because it's such a small cut,
14:26it won't pick up any colour, really, in the oven,
14:29so I'm going to start it off on the stovetop.
14:34I mean, really, this is about giving colour to the lamb,
14:37also colour to the gravy.
14:39I'm just going to make a bit of gravy out of the juices from this pan.
14:45But also you get flavour,
14:47which is really what roasting is all about.
14:50So that's nicely browned now.
14:52We're going to go into the oven for about 12 minutes,
14:55again at 180 degrees centigrade.
14:59The dauphinoise is looking lovely in there.
15:02All I need to do now is make up the veg dish.
15:05To a chopped shallot, on a medium heat,
15:08add a tin of flageolet beans,
15:11along with peas and broad beans.
15:15Once softened and seasoned with salt and pepper,
15:18pop in some chopped mint and parsley.
15:25With the lamb done and set aside to rest,
15:29heat the juices with a knob of butter,
15:32a glug of wine,
15:34some beef or lamb stock,
15:37a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly,
15:40and then season and reduce to make a delicious gravy.
15:44Right, here we go.
15:46I'm not going to lie to you,
15:48this is one of my favourite dishes in the entire world.
15:52And the lamb, does it taste of salt marshes?
15:55Does it taste of salt? No, I don't think so.
15:58But it does taste really special.
16:00Going to try the dauphinoise now.
16:03It tastes so lovely.
16:05Finally, my melange of flageolets, broad beans and peas,
16:09with mint and parsley.
16:11Perfect accompaniment.
16:13It's a classic. It's a classic.
16:15It's the sort of French equivalent of our Sunday roast.
16:19But the great thing about it
16:21is it's very much easier to cook than a Sunday roast.
16:24I mean, you can do all this in about an hour.
16:26And cheers to that.
16:30Back in South Wales,
16:32I'm on the trail of one of my literary heroes,
16:35the writer Dylan Thomas.
16:38Very much the rock star of 20th-century poetry,
16:42Thomas led a short and tempestuous life,
16:46leaving behind a rich and wonderful collection of poems and radio plays.
16:52He spent his final years here in the town of Larne,
16:56on the River Taff Estuary.
16:58Often drinking in Brown's Hotel,
17:00he would watch the world go by
17:03and take inspiration for the unforgettable characters
17:07in his great masterpiece Under Milk Wood.
17:11I couldn't come here and not visit the sanctuary
17:14where that and many of his other great works were written.
17:20I feel very privileged because they've opened up
17:23Dylan Thomas's writing shed just for me.
17:26Normally, you can only look at it through the window.
17:29It's fascinating.
17:31I just love seeing writers writing places.
17:36It looks a bit of a mess, but I sort of expected that.
17:40You can see on the desk there there's some cigarettes
17:43and an empty bottle of beer.
17:45No doubt testimony to Dylan Thomas's enthusiasm for beer.
17:49I do know that Caitlin, his wife,
17:51used to tidy up his shed every morning and light the fire.
17:55Then she'd lock him in his shed and let him get on with it.
17:59He was a very slow writer.
18:01It would have been quite hard, I suspect, for Dylan Thomas to write
18:05because of the view, looking out of the windows at the estuary,
18:09hearing the curlews, seeing the herons.
18:13It would have been a tremendous and wonderful distraction for him.
18:16I mean, on a day like today, where would you rather be?
18:22Dylan Thomas's depiction of Welsh life has a timeless quality
18:27and it's just 20 miles away on the River Towie
18:30that survives a traditional way of fishing
18:33that's been around for thousands of years.
18:37It's thought one-man coracles have been used to catch fish
18:41since pre-Roman times.
18:43I came here 20 years ago for my series Food Heroes
18:47in search of sea trout, or suin, as they call them here,
18:51to cook for the local fishermen Raymond and David Rees.
18:55What I really like is poaching them.
18:57I just think, just poaching them whole
19:00and just doing them with a simple...
19:02Well, particularly this time of year,
19:05it's a hollandaise sauce but with a bit of sorrel.
19:08I'd love to get another sea trout today,
19:11but the odds of success are slimmer because of the time of year,
19:15so I've come at night when the fish won't see the net so clearly in the water.
19:20Luckily, the experience of the Rees family
19:23continues with David's son Malcolm,
19:25who leads the current hardy band of coracle netsmen.
19:29So you've got the coracle, one oar, the paddle,
19:33which you use to manoeuvre it.
19:35You have your priest or knocker, which we use to dispatch the fish.
19:40The seat, obviously, which you sit on.
19:43And then, of course, your strap is for carrying it.
19:46So you put it on your back and you'll see us walking with them.
19:50As we head down to the water, we make quite the sight,
19:54like some strange family of overgrown turtles waddling out to sea.
20:02The men work in pairs, each holding the end of a 40-foot net.
20:06They'll slowly work their way downstream
20:09in the hope of catching a sea trout
20:11heading in the opposite direction to spawn upriver.
20:15Well, this is great. We've launched.
20:17It was a bit sort of touching going into these little canoes,
20:20but actually now we're on the water.
20:22It's really lovely.
20:23Really looking forward to some fishing and catching some fish.
20:31This is such an unusual and atmospheric way to fish.
20:35What's so clever is that each coracle
20:38carries a single man with a single oar,
20:41so there's minimal disturbance in the water to scare the fish.
20:46The nets used allow space for smaller nursery fish
20:50to pass through and around.
20:52The type of fish that can be landed is carefully controlled,
20:56so it's a truly sustainable method.
20:59I must say, when you're on the river like this
21:02and as we're getting away from civilisation,
21:05it can be quite spooky.
21:07You can understand the coracle fishermen
21:09coming up with lots of sort of myths and legends about the river,
21:13and there's one particularly strong one about Anku,
21:17who's the devil's henchman,
21:19and it appears in all Celtic literature,
21:22often pictured as a skeleton with a scythe in a black cloak.
21:28And there's a place further down the river called Poldu,
21:32which means black water,
21:34and the legend is that Anku is trapped in a cave under a rock in Poldu,
21:40and you can only get out on New Year's Eve after midnight
21:46to go up and down the river
21:48and find the last dead person to take off to hell.
21:55Luckily, there's no sign of Anku on the river tonight.
22:01But there is some action in Malcolm's net.
22:04Well done.
22:06It's really good. We've just got a fish.
22:08Unbelievable. I had no hope.
22:10It's a small salmon.
22:12There he is.
22:14Let's get him back in.
22:19That's a shame.
22:21Lovely fish.
22:22See him?
22:24So we've got to wait now for him to...
22:26just to revive himself.
22:30Gone.
22:32Well, you've seen it work anyway.
22:34You certainly have. I feel very blessed.
22:39It's really good we caught a fish.
22:41I know we had to put it back. It was a salmon.
22:44But always the same with fishing.
22:46Once you've caught a fish, the whole atmosphere changes.
22:50You start to feel optimistic, alert, really into it.
22:55If you don't catch fish, you just get moored.
22:58It's been a truly memorable evening,
23:01and while the river Taui may not have delivered us
23:04the sea trout we were after on this occasion,
23:07down in Padstow, my local fishmonger has come to the rescue.
23:12The recipe is going to be char-grilled, lightly smoked sea trout
23:16with a chive dressing,
23:18and I'm going to make a potato salad to go with it
23:20and also a tomato salad.
23:22So I'm just going to take my sea trout fillet here
23:27and just immerse it in the brine like that.
23:30Now, that will stay for 20 minutes.
23:33Marinating the fish in water and salt
23:36ensures it will be seasoned all the way through.
23:40While I'm waiting for the fish to brine,
23:42I'm going to do something which I totally enjoy,
23:45which is prepare a little smoker.
23:47So I've got this box. I can't remember where I got it,
23:50but it's very useful for barbecue,
23:53for producing copious amounts of smoke.
23:56I'm just going to fill my smoker with wood chips like that,
24:00put the lid on and into the barbecue.
24:04I'm just going to put it right on top of the coals.
24:07Try not to burn myself.
24:09Just like that.
24:13Whilst waiting for my magic tin to fill the barbecue with smoke,
24:18I can retrieve my sea trout from the brine.
24:22So now, just to oil the fish,
24:26prior to going on the grill bars,
24:29and then cut it up into four portions, I think.
24:32You don't need to season,
24:34because obviously you've got loads of salt in there.
24:37There we go.
24:47This is great.
24:49This is great. I love stuff like this.
24:54Just close the lid to concentrate the smoke for a bit.
24:59It depends on the heat of your barbecue,
25:02but you want to leave the fish in for about four minutes.
25:05And they're going to come off now,
25:07because the other point is you don't want to overcook sea trout.
25:10It's much better if it's a bit undercooked in the middle.
25:13So where's my plate? Help!
25:16OK.
25:18Where's my fish slice?
25:24I'm just going to put these in the oven now,
25:26and I've set the oven at 50 degrees.
25:29And that means I can keep them warm while I make my salad.
25:32Boil and drain a kilo of potatoes and set aside to cool.
25:37Then into a bowl, place two chopped hard-boiled eggs
25:41and add a handful of finely cut tarragon and parsley.
25:46Chuck in the potatoes along with two chopped shallots,
25:49a couple of teaspoons of chopped capers and gherkins
25:53and a good dollop of mayo.
25:57Next, for the dressing, finely chop a small bunch of chives.
26:03Add a glug of olive oil,
26:06a tablespoon of red wine vinegar
26:09and season with salt and pepper.
26:16Together with the fish and a simple tomato salad,
26:20it just makes for a lovely plate of food.
26:25Well, it's lunchtime and a perfect lunchtime meal, I think.
26:29I'm just going to try it now.
26:33See, you can't taste the brine there, but you know it's there.
26:37The smoke is very light.
26:39It's got this lovely, fragrant succulence.
26:42I just want to taste the potato salad.
26:46Lovely. I do think tarragon works really well with oily fish.
26:51Just thinking, I got this idea.
26:53In New Zealand, funnily enough, there's a lot of trout.
26:56They have a little hot-smoking box
26:58and the catcher fish smoke it and cook it by the riverside and eat it.
27:03And it was that flavour and that sense of immediacy
27:07I'm trying to capture in this dish.
27:09And I think I've got it. I really do.
27:11One last piece.
27:13Yeah.
27:17On the Gar Peninsula is Webley Castle,
27:21built by the Normans to quell the Welsh spirit.
27:25But I can't help but feel that the Welsh spirit
27:28is as strong today as it ever was,
27:31especially with regards to food.
27:35People here fish and farm in ways that respect the traditional,
27:40and yet they never sit still,
27:43always evolving and finding new ways
27:46to enjoy the bounties of this remarkable landscape.
27:59If you'd like to see more episodes of Rick Stein's Food Stories,
28:03press the red button now to watch on BBC iPlayer.
28:09Next time, I'm in Bristol.
28:12There are a lot of women in the city who have been marginalised
28:15and need these opportunities.
28:17It's a really healing process, I'd say.
28:20It's really nice cooking things outdoors. You feel liberated.
28:26We have been told that we've got the best jerk chicken in Bristol.
28:29Yeah.
28:32Wow!
28:33Boom!