- I'm Mary Berry.

And in this series, I'm going to be showing you some of my absolute favorites.

Not too difficult to make.

Not too many ingredients and the sort of recipes that the family are going to say, ooh, and ah.

And please can we have them again?

These favorites have been inspired by the places I love.

The countryside, by the sea, markets and gardens.

And of course my home.

I'll be sharing with you some brand new ideas and some recipes that I never ever tire of.

Tonight.

They should grow really well.

It's dishes inspired by my love of fresh herbs.

I love growing my own herbs.

It's very easy.

I'm getting better at it.

And they're an inspiration for many of my recipes.

When I started cooking, which was a long time ago, you could only get dried herbs.

Nowadays, almost all supermarkets stock fresh herbs, but you can't beat growing them yourself.

Fresh herbs can really give a lift to a recipe.

They can take it from the ordinary to the sublime.

And tonight I'm going to show you some delicious recipes using my favorite herbs.

Luxurious platter for special occasions.

A dish my grandchildren love.

A Mediterranean summertime supper.

My all time favorite cake, but first this simple salad using fresh mint.

Mint is not only one of my favorite herbs, it's the easiest to grow.

And once you've got it growing, it is prolific.

I'm going to use it today in a salad.

So I've got a really nice bunch of fresh mint.

The smell alone sets me wanting to do something with it.

And remember if you keep the stalks and you've got some lovely new potatoes you could put those in to give flavor.

Then I'm going to do the cucumber.

This is rather a big cucumber.

I'll only need half.

Peel the cucumber and cut it down the middle.

And I always take the seeds out for a salad, because they just make the salad very, very wet.

Then I'm going to just cut little half moons of it.

All that remains is for me to do the melon.

Isn't this a prize beauty?

You know, you can grow them.

Thomas, our son, has a raised bed and he grew them just about this size last year.

I'm growing them too, but mine are miniature ones.

So I'm gonna cut that in half.

And all the glory is in the middle.

Look at that.

Doesn't it look tempting?

It makes you think of summer.

Cut the melon into quarters and remove the skin.

Cube and take out any seeds.

This salad is simplicity itself.

For a simple zesty dressing I'm using the juice of half a lemon.

Lemon and mint goes so well together.

Four tablespoons of good olive oil, a little seasoning and mix it till it all comes together.

That's it.

That's ready to go over the top.

The melon in the base, some cucumber.

Generous amount of mint there.

I'm also adding some hard black olives and feta cheese.

And rather than doing it in neat little cubes I just break it off in decent size pieces, sort of crumble.

Isn't this simple?

And it just reminds me of summer.

These vibrant colors.

Just before serving drizzle the dressing over the top.

Well, that's my favorite way of serving mint in the summer.

Oh, that smells of summer.

That mint, the aroma is amazing.

I can get all that in one go, can't I?

To me that tastes of mid-summer.

Lovely, warm sunny days Full of flavor and lots of crunch.

(upbeat music) Growing your own herbs is not only easy to do.

It's so much cheaper than buying them in the shops.

And it's something my granddaughters, Gracie and Abby, love to help me with.

That looks good, Abby.

Right now, just put it in like that.

We've got a watering can behind you.

Can you stretch for that?

That's right.

And then with your hand, put the earth all around.

They should grow really well.

Thank you very much.

Spending time with my grandchildren is one of my great joys, and my next dish is one of their favorites.

So I've got 500 grams of good minced beef here.

Add a finely chopped onion to the mix.

And two cloves of grated garlic.

It's only actually since I've been married that we've had meatballs.

Mum used to do what she called Scotch Mince.

And that was just fried mince, no onion and a good gravy.

I used to love that as children, but I found that my young absolutely love meatballs.

Then I'm going to put some thyme in there.

Now this is broad leaf thyme.

And as you can see, it's got a very Woody stem and it is very strong, much stronger than you would buy in a supermarket because it has matured over the years.

Thyme is wonderful because it's always there.

Winter to summer.

It doesn't lose its leaves.

And it goes.

Next, add 50 grams of graded Parmesan and half a teaspoon of paprika.

It gives a nice bit of color to it and then pepper and salt.

One small egg.

That just hold it all together.

So just mix all that together.

And you know what?

I'm going to discard the spoon and use my hand.

You can really get the feel of it.

If it's a wet day in its school holidays, children will help.

They love to help to cook, especially when it's something they're going to enjoy for their lunch.

Shape the mixture into a cake and divide it in four.

Each section will make six meatballs.

You just get the mixture slightly damp hands and shape them into a ball.

I would say they're golf ball size.

My husband plays golf.

They look like golf balls to me.

So there's the last one done.

Makes a pound of mince.

500 grams go a long way, doesn't it?

It's best to chill the meatballs in the fridge for half an hour before frying.

One of the secrets of making really good meatballs is to brown them well and then not to cook them for too long.

They should be soft when you break into them just like a good beef broke.

And be gentle.

Cause in fact if you are brutal with them, they will break up.

Once they're brown all over, start the tomato sauce in the same pan.

First soften one finely chopped onion.

And essential to get that tender before you add the other ingredients.

So in those two or three cloves of garlic adjust to what your family likes.

Add 600 mills of pasata.

One teaspoon of castor sugar and three tablespoons of tomato puree.

If you like it fairly picante, a few drops of Tabasco.

And then we need salt and pepper.

Stir that in.

And so I add about 300 mil of water to that.

You might say, why add water that?

But it does intensify the flavor.

I'm just going to leave that for about 10 minutes to bubble gently and reduce.

I love Basil.

It is an absolute natural with tomatoes.

That goes in there like that.

Then in goes the meatballs Then a low simmer for about 10 minutes, then it's done.

And you serve it from the pan.

One pan to wash up.

That's a joy, isn't it?

After 10 minutes, the sauce will be reduced.

And the meat balls will be wonderful and juicy.

It really is an intense tomato of flavor.

And the basil is coming through.

I think the family will really enjoy that.

I've used herbs in my cooking all my life but I never are of learning more about them.

I've come to the dairy in south London to meet Chef Robin Gill.

He's well known for his brave and exciting use of fresh herbs which he grows himself in his rather unusual garden.

- Come on up.

Let me show you what I'm most proud of.

Well, one of the things I'm most proud of up here.

We've been so lucky to have almost as much space on the roof as we do in the whole dining room.

- Well, this is quite amazing, isn't it?

All growing in these boxes that are normally sort of chucked out once they've been used a bit for deliveries.

- Exactly.

We did everything pretty much on a shoe string.

The idea was is that we could pick something up if it needed more sunlight or less sunlight and then just move it around.

- Robin's passion for fresh herbs means he now has over 40 different varieties growing on his restaurant rooftop.

As I glance around there's many of the herbs that I know.

I mean, look at this wonderful French Terra.

- Yeah, it's stunning.

- But I have no idea what that is there.

Is it Sweet Sicily?

- Exactly, I love it.

I think it's got like a little bit of an anise flavor.

- Let me tell you.

- So almost like a little bit like fennel.

- A little bit of an anise seed.

It's a very strong anise seed.

- Yeah, yeah.

And something we really like, and we use a hell of a lot because it's quite versatile.

It's sorrel.

I find it quite refreshing and we use it with fish, but also we've done a really interesting dessert with it at the moment.

- Really?

I'd never think of putting sorrel with a.

- Yeah, we've used it with sorrel and apple.

- And along here we got, is it garlic chives?

- Yeah, these are normal chives and garlic chives.

If you taste a chive like that, it's peppery, you know?

Chives when you buy in a supermarket, it just not got that same heat.

It's completely like, it's about times a hundred, the power of this chive compared to something we buy and that's and one of the main reasons why we do this here.

- You can grow herbs anywhere.

I mean, right over there, there's somebody growing it on a window sill.

So very much in the style you're growing it here.

- Exactly.

- In boxes.

And so you don't need a big garden to grow herbs.

All the herbs that Robin grows feature on his menu.

He often combines them in ways I've never seen before.

Three or four different herbs on one plate.

And I can't wait to try some of them.

- So this is one dish.

It kind of really sort of sums up what we do here.

We try to take three ingredients and just only use flavors like herbs, just to intensify the ingredient.

So we've got peas, celery, mint, and that's pretty much all it is.

And then we just use herbs and the garden, we got some of the fresh sorrel here, the black peppermint, Corsican mint.

And then we got a little bit of the apple mint.

Okay.

And then finally, just a bit.

- What's that?

- It's mint snow, we call it.

It's like a refreshing ice, really summary dish.

- That's frozen?

- Yes frozen.

I can hear the crunch.

- You know, that's sheer heaven.

The herbs really help the dish and the sorrel's coming through strongly.

- Yeah.

- And I like the idea that there's a hint of lemon, a lot of mint.

It's not only Robin's diners who benefit from the herb garden.

They also provide an urban Haven for the bees.

- So I'm gonna take.

- Oh gosh, that was bursting out of the middle.

- Yeah.

- Oh, you needn't bring the bees too near.

- This is one of the dish I'm most proud of from a garden point of view.

It really represents what we do here.

It's basil, rooftop honey, and cojettes and that's pretty much it.

What are those yellow flowers?

I've never seen them before.

They're Rocket flowers.

- Oh gosh.

You've let it go to seed.

- Yeah.

- That honey is unusual.

It makes me think of elder flower cordial.

- That's exactly it.

It's the dominant flavor of the honey.

You know, without a doubt to elder flower - You use a very small amount of herbs, but cause you've grown them, they are so much more picante and strong.

I've certainly learned a lot and I shall be using those rocket flowers.

You mark my words.

- Excellent.

Okay then.

- I've learned a lot from Robin and I'll definitely be planting a few new varieties in my garden next summer.

My next dish uses one of the most popular and widely grown herbs, basil.

Pesto lemon chicken.

It is just lovely to have on a warm summary day.

And it always reminds me of the Mediterranean.

Start the dressing for the chicken with six tablespoons of mayonnaise.

And four tablespoons of fresh pesto from the shop.

You can make it yourself if you've got a lot of basil and it's simply a basil, olive oil, garlic, pine nuts and a little Parmesan cheese.

So juice of half a lemon.

Now I use a lemon squeezer.

I know the chefs just go like that and all the juice comes out.

I don't seem to have those sort of muscles.

So I use a lemon squeezer.

Makes it easy and effortless.

So I've got juice of half a lemon in there.

Then I'm going to add some pepper and salt.

Could that be easier?

You get a lovely, fresh bright green color.

Now to the chicken to go in it.

I'm using chicken breasts that I've likely roasted for 20 minutes until they're cooked through.

You didn't necessarily use breasts of chicken.

As all you could use a whole chicken and just take the skin off and cut it into strips.

And making sure that every bit is coated.

I think that looks really, really summary and good.

I like to serve it with a salad around the outside.

So it's a complete dish and you just help yourself.

I grew cucumbers this year and they were prolific and far too many for us.

And I began and did some pickling of cucumber, giving them away to friends.

I think I was dead lucky.

I'm also adding two sliced avocados.

I'm not going to just coat them in a little bit of lemon juice, because that stops them discoloring.

And some halved, baby plump tomatoes.

Little bit of pepper and salt.

And with a cucumber too.

Now I'm going to assemble the dish.

I'm going to put the chicken down the middle and remember ideally make it the day before and just leave it in a bowl covered with cling film in the fridge and the chicken will taste of basil.

So quite sort of higgldy piggldy here.

This all looks so beautifully fresh and tempting.

If you like top it off with some micro herbs and a handful of toasted pine nuts.

I'm just going to put a little drizzle of oil and vinegar dressing over the top.

And because this is very much a basil salad, I'm going to put a few leaves on it.

Like that on the top.

For me, that's a taste of the Mediterranean, full of flavor and sunshine.

Herbs are a great way to add sophistication to a dish when entertaining guests.

And I love using them to add zing to the salmon prawn and potato salad platter.

If we're having friends round and I'm doing a buffet, I always include a salmon dish.

First, season three medium salmon fillets and add a good squeeze of lemon.

Lemon and fish go very well together.

Wrap them in foil.

We don't need to seal it, because it's not gonna run away.

And cook at one 160 fan.

And it'll take about 15 minutes.

I've already boiled 500 grams of new potatoes.

And whilst they're cool I can make the dressing.

Three tablespoons of Dijon mustard.

Three tablespoonfuls of white wine vinegar.

Four tablespoonfuls of oil and then a tablespoonful of sugar.

And best to use castor sugar, because it dissolves quickly.

Add a little seasoning and give it a good whisk.

Now this is a very mustardy dressing.

It goes well with the potatoes.

Doesn't take much mixing.

That's it.

Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, quarter them and add them to the dressing.

I think a potato salad is something not to be forgotten.

So much pasta and rices served as salads, but there's nothing to beat a good potato salad.

The warm potato will absorb this lovely mixture of mustard and oil.

To add some crunch sliced three spring onions and four sticks of celery.

When I was young, dad used to grow it and we had celery with everything.

It was almost too much celery.

Next, add six tablespoons of mayonnaise and the chopped spring onion and celery.

So it is not going on the floor.

It's going straight in the bowl.

That's it.

And to add a bit of color a few thinly sliced radishes.

Mix all that together.

The radishes have a very picante flavor.

So if they're thinly sliced they just fit very well with the salad.

That's it.

Now so wonderful, fresh parsley.

If you can't be bothered to chop parsley, I've got a quick tip to speed it up.

Put it in a cup and then just snip it with scissors.

And if you've got an extra pair of hands in the kitchen, and it's one of your children or grandchildren, they love doing this little job.

That's it.

Then put some of it in here.

So mix all that together.

Parsley works really well in this potato salad, because it gives the brightness of the green as well as adding to the flavor.

Just gonna put that to one side and see how the salmon's doing.

Now that is absolutely perfect.

And then you just flake that up in sort of reasonable size pieces.

Potato salad down the center.

I'm trying very carefully not to drip it on the side.

So there's this salmon all the way down.

And to make it extra special, some king prawns.

If you get hold of each one and tuck the tails into each other and then lie them across the top, I would serve this on an occasion that perhaps it's a special birthday or an anniversary, and you've got a crowd round and you want to really push the boat out.

I think they look fun and very special.

And I've got something to crown the glory.

You might call it showing off.

I've been dying to grow micro herbs, because you can't get them very easily.

And just look at that.

It looks so smart.

It's all different kinds of lettuce and mustards.

So I'm going to snip some and just put it across the top.

If you haven't got micro herbs, of course you can just put parsley over the top.

And I think that looks really special.

So how about that for your next very special occasion?

Worth trying?

Herbs aren't exclusively for savory dishes.

They can also be great in cakes and puddings.

Lemon verbena is the unsung hero of my herb garden.

It's just wonderful in tea, but think further.

Finely chopped leaves are a great addition when you want a lemon flavor.

I love it so much, I'm going to use it in my signature lemon drizzle cake.

If you ask anybody what their real favorite cake is it's nearly always lemon drizzle.

It's certainly mine.

So lemon verbena, if you rub your fingers against it it is strongly lemon.

A bit like lemon thyme, but it's rather sweeter than that.

If they're really tough old leaves from a big plant, you want to take out the middle of the leaf so that it's not too tough.

Don't worry if you can't get hold of lemon verbena.

The recipe will still work without it.

So I'll end up with about a tablespoon of lemon verbena.

That's it.

To make the cake, add four eggs, 225 grams of castor sugar.

And the same again of baking spread.

If you like to use butter, it must be really soft.

Then add 275 grams of self raising flour, two teaspoons of baking powder, and four tablespoons of milk.

I've been making this for as long as I can remember and when the children were very tiny I had my closest friend living across the road.

Her mother came down to see her from the north and she said you girls don't do enough baking.

And she stood in the kitchen with the little prams all around with the children and made the cake for us.

And it's been my favorite ever since.

Add the zest of two lemons and beat for about a minute until beautifully smooth.

That is beaten to perfection.

This amount of mixture fills a tray bake tin 23 by 30 centimeters.

You grease the tin really well.

And then you line it with non-sick paper.

I've made more of these and you've had hot dinners.

If you haven't got this size tin, the same amount of mixture will fill a 20 centimeter round tin or two one pound loaf tins.

It needs to go in the oven 160 for about 35 or 40 minutes.

Whilst the cake bakes get on with the delicious lemon drizzle topping.

Nothing could be simpler.

Start with the juice of two lemons then add 175 grams of granulated sugar, and it's ready.

Well, that's just as it should be.

A gorgeous pale golden brown.

Wait 10 minutes for the cake to cool slightly before topping with the lemon drizzle.

Make sure you get it all to the edges.

And then it will be really delicious.

Once the topping has completely soaked in it's ready to slice.

Now I cannot resist.

That is as light as a feather.

You can just see the flex of lemon verbena.

That is sheer bliss.

When I finish that I'm quite sure I'd be ready for another slice.

Next time.

- That's a bit sharp at the moment.

- That's lovely.

(woman laughing) It's my favorite from the local farmer's market.

(upbeat music)