[light music] As a chef, I've been privileged to travel to all corners of the globe, but there are one small group of islands that in my mind has it all.

From farmers to fishermen and great seafood.

These are delicious.

Absolutely delicious.

Joining me on my journey, I'll be meeting some of my mates who just happened to be some of the finest chefs in the entire world.

[laughs] Butter.

[laughs] [plane roaring] Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

Woo hoo!

Hello, I'm Paul Rankin.

Welcome to Belfast.

[laughter] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): That's right.

My foodie travels all around the UK have brought me to Belfast, and I've been joined by my mate, local boy, Paul Rankin.

Top chef, terrible tour guide.

This is my old house.

That's where my auntie lived.

[laughter] Yeah, we're coming up to my old school here.

Your sch-- old school.

Yeah, my old school.

Is it still around?

Yeah, there it is.

JAMES MARTIN: How the hell did you go there?

PAUL RANKIN: That's the Royal Belf-- JAMES MARTIN: Are you making it up?

No, that's the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.

That's where I went.

I went to school in like, a portacabin.

PAUL RANKIN: City Hall over there.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

- Nice, innit?

It's a good City Hall, that one.

JAMES MARTIN: Nice, innit?

Yeah?

The first thing you see before you even get to Belfast, when you come off the plane, is obviously, the famous cranes, the-- the yellow cranes.

PAUL RANKIN: Oh, yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: Titanic, of course.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, yeah, and one of them's gone now.

I don't know what they did with it.

Ah, there's two cranes now.

They've found the other one.

[laughter] I could have sworn there was only one.

JAMES MARTIN: Pointless having you here as a tour guide, innit?

- Yeah.

It has got a nice feel to it, doesn't it?

JAMES MARTIN: Very friendly people.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, people are friendly, they've got time for you.

There's lots to do, it's got an energy, it's got an intimacy.

It actually has a really great restaurant scene.

JAMES MARTIN: Which is the famous street where you took me once?

With all the bars on it.

Er, a street with all the bars on it?

Yeah.

PAUL RANKIN: There's bars on every street.

[laughter] That's Belfast Cathedral, and we're just coming in to the cathedral quarter.

That's a great bar down there.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah, you took me here.

I've been here.

This is the street with the bars.

PAUL RANKIN: Is it?

Oh, yeah, well.

I took you here before.

I remember now.

Yeah, I don't.

[laughter] [bright music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Belfast is home to just over 300,000 people with the Irish Sea, River Lagan and rich pasture all close by.

Both the city and surrounding area produce some fantastic food, but we're beginning our culinary adventure at the Royal Belfast Golf Club.

It's not just the food that's world class in Northern Ireland, the golf courses are too, and dating from 1885, this is Ireland's oldest, and I love it.

Located right next to the Irish Sea, it's a stunning spot to cook my first dish, and hopefully squeeze in a quick game with Paul later.

Now, I've been here quite a lot on golfing trips over the last 12, 14 years.

But never has it been like this, trust me.

Unbelievable this place.

Um, and it's so rich in terms of golf courses, but also in terms of its food and the area, and this is just a selection of just some of the thousands of ingredients that are available around here.

And what I've done here is take this slab of bacon and cook it for about 40 minutes.

Nice and simple.

Smoked belly pork is the key to this one, and then we'll lose this out of the way, and then that just leaves us with a cooked bacon and these wonderful scallops, and apples from Armagh, the famous Armagh Bramley apples, which we've got a PGI status, which means they have to be from here.

They're protected.

This, and the cider that they make from it.

Oh, it's delicious.

And all I've done with this, is incorporate the apples and the cider, boiled it up and made a little apple sauce.

So the first thing we're going to do is prepare our scallops for this one, and they're very simple to open.

The easiest way to do it is use a table knife.

What you want to do is scrape the knife right along the surface, or the underside of the flat shell.

And to do that, insert the knife in and give it a bit of a wiggle.

[scraping] And they open up like that.

And what you end up with is this beautiful fresh scallop, and then we can tip the entire lot into water.

You don't often buy these like this but when you do, they are the freshest.

What you have is a little roe in there.

Now, you've probably eaten the row before because anybody that's been to a Chinese restaurant and had that crispy fried seaweed, which generally is cabbage, the little orange stuff that they put on the top is usually dried roe-- scallop roe.

Now you can leave the roe on, or take it off.

It's entirely up to you.

But generally, a lot of people don't like this roe.

But we'll lose that to one side and then we turn our attention to our nice little bit of pork.

Now, you're going to remove the rinds.

You can leave this on it if you want.

It's easier when it's cooked, to be honest, than to do it when it's raw.

So just peel it off.

See?

Now that is a breakfast.

That, fried in between two pieces of white sliced bread.

You take your nice pieces of this bacon, and then this is really simple, what we're going to do, because it doesn't take very long to cook.

I've got the bacon here, I've got my scallops ready.

We can turn our attention to the onions.

A few bits of shallot.

[slicing] You don't have to put this with it, but it just makes a nice, pretty dish, and a little bit of texture to it as well.

And for that, I need some milk.

Little bit of full fat milk and some flour.

[grinding] You can season either, or both.

It's entirely up to you.

It's quite weird, this.

I've never really cooked on a golf course and I've got one eye on looking out for flying golf balls while concentrating what I'm doing.

But-- but in we go with the onions into the milk, and then just sit them in the flour, because these are just basically going to get deep fried.

Just a little bit of texture-- crispy onion rings.

We're simply going to cook this now.

So a little bit of oil in our pan, little bit of butter to help it along as well, and then Chuck your bacon in.

[sizzling] And at the same time I'm going to put the scallops in as well.

They can just sit in the pan as well.

It's a wonderful way to cook this bacon like this.

It's a really inexpensive cut of meat and this is where this idea, I think, of Irish cooking, came about.

The good, proper rustic food.

The food that has got so much taste in it.

That's what gives Ireland, particularly this neck of the woods, so much history when it comes to cooking.

Now, while that's happening, we'll put a bit of onions in the pan just to fry these up.

Probably going to take a couple of minutes, no more than that.

[light music] No pressure.

[bright music] Practice makes perfect, you see.

[laughs] So flip the scallops over.

Now with scallops, you must get a bit of color on it.

This is what you're looking for-- nice little bit of color on the scallops, and you get that just with a little bit of oil in the pan, little bit of butter.

Looking good in there.

And you wouldn't normally think this combination goes, but trust me, it goes fantastically well.

So we can lift these out.

You don't want to overcook them as well.

Take our little bacon out.

And what we end up in this pan is this bacon fat.

The Irish have a wonderful term called, I think it's right, scud the beggars.

What it is, is oatmeal toasted in bacon fat.

But, I'm going to toast it off in some of this stuff as well-- Irish black butter.

Now this is a combination of the Armagh Bramley apples, the famous Bramley apples, and a little bit of cider and some spices.

This is off the charts.

It's treacly, it's molasses, it's everything that you want with this kind of food as well.

See, look at that.

Look at that in the pan!

Now, one word of warning-- when you fry an oatmeal in a pan, with bacon fat, do not go sticking your fingers in there.

Do not be tempted to have a little mouthful of this.

It's boiling hot, all right?

We can take this and put it on top of your bacon.

You've got all the flavors-- the apple, the cider, the spices, all of which work really well together with the bacon.

But the crunchiness of the oatmeal-- [groans] It would be cooler to put your hand in that deep fat fryer, trust me.

Gah!

Bit of that.

And then, finally, I'm going to make a little sauce.

Now, I know what you're thinking-- this is a bit poncey for me, and sometimes I do do poncy food.

It's going to get worse before it gets better.

But watch.

This is a little bit of stock-- beef stock, chicken stock-- you can buy whatever you want really.

And then we can basically, simply plate it up.

[light music] But because we're surrounded by amazing restaurants now, in Northern Ireland, I'm going to get a piping bag, and we're going to use this combination.

This is apple and cider.

The Armagh Bramley Apple.

I'm going to put this on the plate.

[gentle music] Turn that pan off now, and you've got this amazing bacon.

You're looking at this and went, the man's lost his mind.

He's lost his marbles.

This is far too fancy than what he normally does.

And to be fair, it is.

But I can't resist.

Every now and then, you've got to go a bit poncey.

Look at that.

And then, lift these out.

Nice little bit of crispy shallots.

We've got our sauce.

Don't need to do anything.

It's like a treacly sort of sauce.

You've got all that sort of remains of that wonderful cider.

Cider, butter, all the flavor from the bacon, the scallops.

You're losing nothing.

And we just do a little drizzle.

I've actually lost it.

This is a bit too much, to be honest, but-- just look at it.

And then a few of these.

It's perfect food, that, for a golf club.

[gentle music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Decadent and delicious.

My pan fried scallops and bacon, with the wondrous Irish black butter.

A dish that's well above par.

And what better way to burn off that fantastic dish than with a quick round of golf?

Right.

Time to go find my caddy.

Right then, fella.

We've seen Belfast, but whenever I'm in town, this is what I do.

You like our Northern Irish golf courses?

Golf.

This is some of the greatest golf courses in the world.

You any good at this?

Because the Irish are pretty good at this.

I should be good at it.

It's in our genetics over here, you know?

Yeah, but are you any good at it?

Well, I've seen Rory McIlroy on TV.

I've studied him.

Go on, then.

Yeah.

Is this the right bat?

JAMES MARTIN: That is not a bat.

Off you go.

- No, You go first.

- No, you go first.

Straight-- straight down the middle.

I can't even see the flag.

You don't need to see it.

It's down the hill.

PAUL RANKIN: So just try and hit those guys?

No, try not to hit those guys, but try and aim it towards the house.

PAUL RANKIN: [grunts] That's quite hard, even putting that in there.

OK, just do a practice swing first.

[comical music] [laughs] I didn't do that on purpose.

Hold on.

You've made a new bunker for them.

Go on.

All right.

Maybe try one more.

PAUL RANKIN: I nearly hit the buggy there.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah, I know.

[laughs] PAUL RANKIN: OK, just-- - Eye only your ball.

Eye on the ball.

[thumps] - Waah!

[laughs] Straight down the middle.

PAUL RANKIN: Straight down the-- I told you it's in my genetics.

OK, all right.

Can I have a go?

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

You brought me here.

That was some wallop.

Good shot, sir.

Good shot.

JAMES MARTIN: Well played, sir.

PAUL RANKIN: Do you know where our balls are?

JAMES MARTIN: Er, yes.

Now, that's a question I didn't think you'd ask when I visited Ireland.

[laughter] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Well, he's no Rory McIlroy, that's for sure, but maybe Paul's second shot will bring out some hidden golfing talent.

PAUL RANKIN: Let me see this.

Watch this.

[comical music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): No, I guess not.

PAUL RANKIN: I don't think I want to play this.

JAMES MARTIN: Remember, I get invited back here.

Eye on the ball.

Ooh!

PAUL RANKIN: Turns out I'm not a natural.

Come on, James.

You just missed the bunker, but you're on the green.

That's an amazing shot.

[comical music] Go!

Go!

So this to win the Open.

PAUL RANKIN: Oh, yes!

Yes!

[laughs] JAMES MARTIN: Right, go on then.

PAUL RANKIN: Yes!

Did you do that?

JAMES MARTIN: Did you touch that?

There's something wrong with this whole.

This is it.

Yes.

What a team.

We could be in the Ryder Cup.

Is the Ryder Cup tennis or golf?

JAMES MARTIN: [scoffs] Look, I'll leave you to practice.

All right.

JAMES MARTIN: All right?

I'm enjoying this.

I'm enjoying it.

[grunts] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now I'm in Armagh County, on my way to meet one of Northern Ireland's rising stars.

I'm en route now, just a little bit south of Belfast, to go to a restaurant that's run by a hugely talented lady.

She started cooking when she was just 14, in fact started life as a kitchen porter and worked her way through the ranks of some amazing kitchens.

And recently, she's just been awarded a Michelin star of her very own, so I'm looking forward to tasting her food.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And here's the lady herself-- Danni Barry, head chef of Clenaghans Restaurant in Craigavon.

After winning that Michelin star at Deane's Eipic in Belfast, Danni decided a change was needed.

She set about restoring this wonderful 18th century stone building, bringing it back to life in the form of a world class restaurant.

And the fusion of traditional and modern continues in the kitchen too, where local ingredients are used to make incredible food.

Danni, I would say cheers.

You're hard at work.

No.

Having water.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Cheers.

You've got another service later.

What an amazing building as well.

DANNI BARRY: Yeah it's beautiful.

It's really stunning, and you've got it on a really nice day.

I've taken a look at your menu.

It would be crazy not to go local food around here and you're maxing it out, really.

Yeah.

Tell me about this dish.

What have I got here?

Well, we are in Armagh, so obviously, the Bramley Apple is famous here.

So here we've done like a baked apple terrine with Bramley apples, some purée.

Er, meadowsweet, which is a wildflower that grows around, just all around us at the minute, er, we've made the ice cream with that.

Er, we've made some sugar and dusted the biscuits with that as well.

We've use some Abernathy butter, which is just from Dromore, which is 15 minutes away, to make the burned butter biscuit as well.

If you can get great ingredients like this on your doorstep, then use it.

Yeah, that-- well, that's I'd agree 100%.

That's exactly what we do.

Now I've got to mention these awards, because your awards cabinet is growing and gro-- you're going to need a new shelf, aren't you, really?

I mean, you run a Michelin star restaurant for three years.

I mean, Northern Ireland's what, second?

Second ever Michelin star, female chef?

I think Irelands second-- Northern Ireland's only ever female Michelin starred chef, yeah.

If that means anything to-- [laughs] It means a lot.

[laughter] But does that put more pressure on you here?

Or-- or what?

DANNI BARRY: I think it does.

I think a lot of people follow that and they've come here with that expectation and the style here is quite different.

With the settings, it's more rustic and we do dishes to share and it's a bit more generous.

It's not that high end, fine dining.

Because this is technically your first place on your own with your name above the door.

- Yeah.

I mean, how does that feel, because-- It's a big change-- it's a big change from running a kitchen to actually running the business, so it's a learning curve, James, from having to step away from the stove a bit and think about all the other stuff.

You've got paperwork and computers now, haven't you?

Yeah, like, emails.

Yeah, there's a lot of emails.

And HR, and dealing with people.

Yeah.

It's easier just to cook for a living.

Like that's all I wanted to do, so I still get to do a bit of that here.

JAMES MARTIN: Well, on the basis of what I'm tasting here, I think things will continue.

Cheers, Danni.

- Cheers.

- It's amazing.

- Thanks for coming.

I'm glad I've made it.

Enjoy your trip.

[chuckles] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): What a fantastic place.

Northern Ireland really has so many things to put a smile on your face, and my next dish is no exception.

Now, what I love about Irish dishes is the simplicity of them, and this is the prime example.

We're going to do a wonderful little soda bread, but with onion and stout soup first of all.

So it's all about the onions.

So the first thing we do is get a nice hot pan on the stove, and slice the onions.

[chopping] A touch of oil, just in the pan.

I want to get a little bit of color to these.

It's not like a classic French onion soup, we have to brown them really, really well.

Just a nice, light golden color.

[sizzling] So just keep those cooking away nicely.

Meanwhile, I'm going to turn our attention to the classic soda bread.

Now, in here, I've got two different types of flour.

I've got plain flour and I've got wholemeal, self-raising flour.

The darker colored one.

And then, just a touch of bicarb soda nice pinch of salt, and then add buttermilk.

It's really that straightforward.

I'm just going to mix this together to form a dough.

And this is the big mistake, I think, when people are making bread at home.

They never put enough liquid into it.

So don't be frightened to put more liquid than you think into the mix.

So just leave that to one side.

Meanwhile, we can get the liquid into our onions and for that, we use a bit of Irish stout.

A good drizzle in there.

Now this is going to give it some color as well.

Now we're going to add some stock.

You can add chicken or beef stock for this.

It's entirely up to you.

And now bring this to the boil, and gently cook this for about 10, 15 minutes, which gives us enough time to finish off our soda bread.

Now you can see this mixture has come together nicely.

Take a little bit of the flour on our board.

And then we'll do two of these.

[bright music] Just dust the surface with a bit of flour, and then just do a little crisscross in the top.

You can use your knife, back of a knife.

Now, I've set the oven about 200 degrees Centigrade, and this wants to cook for about 15, 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, your soup can just gently simmer.

Now, with this, we can make our own butter, and for that, all you simply do is take some double cream and you just whisk it up, because in my mind, you can't have soda bread without proper butter.

And it is actually so easy to make yourself.

So we just put the double cream in and whisk it up.

And continue whisking it until it starts to thicken, and then it'll start to separate and make butter.

[whirring] Now it's a good idea, though, once you've got it going in the machine, you've got whipped cream, to get a cloth ready.

Because if not, you're going to probably need to redecorate your kitchen in a minute and change your shirt.

[bright music] It's about there.

And you've technically made your own butter.

Now what I tend to do is just squeeze it out over the sink.

Grab yourself a bit of greaseproof paper.

Tip this out.

Add a little bit of sea salt over the top.

Now the soda bread's not far off, so I'll turn my attention to the soup now.

So as the onions start to cook nicely, this starts to reduce down.

You see you've got this wonderful color.

What we need to add is some cream to this.

And then, there's no thickening agent in this, so what I'm going to use is some lovely Cheddar cheese, and we just break this up.

It's a good idea to do this at the end, rather than at the beginning, because the Cheddar can split and separate.

So once you get to that stage, take it off the heat, season it up, decant it and blend it.

[whirring] You can see the texture of it.

It's delicious and full of flavour.

And to serve it, you can just pop it into your bowl.

Smell of this-- a little bit of stout, the lovely onions.

Just tastes ace.

You've got the lovely homemade butter.

A nice bit of soup, and I'm going to finish off with a few bits Cheddar cheese, just on the top.

Little cheffy wizzle of cream.

Just a little bit of olive oil over the top.

Then, of course, you've got to have the fresh hot soda bread.

[upbeat music] And the smell of this is fabulous.

The hot soda bread, with that delicious soup.

You see, now you know how to make your own butter.

Enjoy it.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Hearty, homemade cooking doesn't get better than this.

[bright music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Paul Rankin and I have had a great morning on the golf course.

Well, one of us did anyway.

PAUL RANKIN: Turns out I'm not a natural.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now, to save the fairway from further damage, I've sent Paul off to a nearby butcher, which is truly unique.

Now, I might be biased but I think Northern Irish beef is amongst the best in the world.

And I'm here in Dromore in County Down, to visit Carncrooke Meats to see what makes their beef so special.

[country tune] PAUL RANKIN: Are you Ben?

- Chef.

- Paul.

- How Are you?

- Yeah, good to see you.

- You too.

You too.

Welcome to Dromore.

I've only passed through Dromore but I hear that you have a very special Himalayan salt aging room for your beef.

Not many people are allowed in it, but for you, come on ahead.

Let's go.

[bright music] OK, chef, this way.

I feel like I'm entering a sacred place.

Nothing like this in Dromore, chef.

PAUL RANKIN: So what have we got in here?

Well, chef, here we have sirloin, between eight and nine weeks old.

PAUL RANKIN: Eight and nine weeks.

Yeah, that's what you guys are demanding now, so we have to deliver.

PAUL RANKIN: Aye.

Fresher stuff on the bottom, obviously.

Older stuff on the top.

This is the salt wall behind?

This is the salt wall.

This is what makes the difference between the meat rotting-- PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

--and the meat staying fresher.

So what exactly does it do?

BEN: It keeps the good bacteria eating the bad bacteria, and then the meat will naturally break down, naturally tenderize, all the time adding flavor and maturity to the beef.

PAUL RANKIN: So what sort of breeds are you're working with?

BEN: Breeds would be a cross between Angus, Hereford, maybe a bit of Limousin, depending on the season.

But it's all local.

PAUL RANKIN: And in this area, this is great farming country.

Superb, superb.

Yeah.

You we're known for getting a wee bit of rain every now and again, so the green grass, and everybody says it coming up into Dromore, you see the Dromore hills, you see the green fields.

We're geared up for it, perfect.

Well, I mean, this is the Emerald Isle.

That's it.

We have the best grass on the planet.

Without a doubt.

- What are cows meant to eat?

- Grass.

Grass.

Therefore, we have the best beef on the planet.

BEN: Yeah, it's beautiful.

Definitely taste the difference.

PAUL RANKIN: So I'd quite like to taste some of this stuff.

OK.

Yeah, is that OK?

Well, why don't we get some sirloin, maybe a wee bit of fillet and let's see what we can do.

OK.

[light music] OK, chef.

Come with me.

We've got some stuff to show you here.

What do we have?

BEN: OK.

Sirloin and chump.

Some of the finest bits of beef that you're going to taste.

PAUL RANKIN: OK, how's old's the chump?

Honestly?

Yeah.

Well, we've kept this as a surprise just for you.

These bits of meat, one year old.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, right.

Are you messing with me?

BEN: Honestly.

- That's not possible.

- Absolutely.

- Are you serious?

- Absolutely.

A year?

One year.

365 days.

So long as it's kept in the right conditions, good product, anything's possible.

So this is your eight-week-old sirloin?

Eight, nine weeks.

PAUL RANKIN: Eight, nine weeks.

BEN: Good to go.

- OK, can I cut some?

Yeah?

BEN: Absolutely.

So do you normally trim this off the wee end bit, yeah?

Absolutely yeah.

Give it to your dog.

[laughs] Now you can see that very little of that has actually gone into the meat at all.

So I'll cut myself a wee steak.

You've done that once or twice, chef.

So the texture is really nice.

And the fat is still nice and creamy.

Beautiful.

Real creamy.

And when I smell it, there's no funky aromas at all.

It's all clean, almost slightly sweet smell.

And fresh.

Yeah, fresh.

So you think I can taste some of this?

Actually, we have some ready for you.

Brilliant.

Let's go.

Let's go.

[bright music] OK, chef.

Here we have your year-old chump.

Yeah.

Your year-old sirloin, and your eight-week-old sirloin.

PAUL RANKIN: Let's try the eight to nine week-old one.

Grab a fork there, do you want to taste it?

Yeah, absolutely.

PAUL RANKIN: Yum.

You know, it tastes like aged beef.

BEN: Yeah, the way beef should taste.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

Very good product.

Thank you.

Well, let's try this.

PAUL RANKIN: You can really, really taste the age on that, you know?

The meat is delicious, but for me, I think I'm losing the beef taste.

BEN: Mm-hmm.

PAUL RANKIN: Wow.

That, you can't quite taste the age on it quite as much.

Yeah.

PAUL RANKIN: But you know what?

My favorite is actually the eight to nine-week-old sirloin, because you can really taste the beef and the quality.

Yeah, I know what you mean.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

So, James, you're going to love our good Northern Irish beef.

It's a cracker.

[gentle music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I have no doubt about that, and I've got the perfect Irish comfort food in mind.

Now great quality meat requires simple cooking, and this is the prime example of that.

I'm just going to do a lovely stew, but a braised beef and onion stew with champ.

So the first thing here, we've got our cuts of meat.

Now these are about six to seven ounce pieces of shin of beef, which is the perfect cut to braise in this dish.

The first thing we're going to do is seal this in the pan, so get a nice hot pan on the stove-- [sizzling] --and you want to colour this meat.

The colouring of it is the crucial part at the beginning, because that's what's going to color our stew at the end of it, particularly this one.

Now to thicken it, we're going to use a touch of flour, just a tiny bit of flour on each bit of meat is all you need.

We're just going to seal it all around.

Good glug of red wine.

[hissing] So once your red wines in, pour in the stock and you want to basically three-quarters cover the piece of meat.

So once that's in, we can turn our attention to the onions.

Now you want the onions to stay together while they're cooking, so we're just going to throw the whole onions in.

Well, not throw them in, place them in.

And then the addition of some fresh thyme.

Now you can either cook this on the stove, just bring it to a gentle simmer with a lid on, or you can pop it in the oven, which is what I'm going to do.

Now, you need to cook this for about an hour, and then take the onions out and continue cooking it, with the lid on, for about another hour, hour and a half, until the beef is nice and tender.

So that's going in there.

Now I've got some that I've been cooking away nicely, just to show you exactly what I mean.

This is the nice little bit of beef.

As it's been cooking, you can see that's reduced down.

Look at that lovely sauce over the top as well.

And then the onions themselves are in here.

Now, these are the ones that have been cooled, and you can see they're nice and soft.

But I'm going to cook these quite simply, just to warm them up.

But the garnish with this, I'm going to do like a variant on a classic champ, really.

Champ is mashed potato, spring onions, but I'm going to add some cabbage and cream.

[country music] And all I'm going to do is basically just soften the cabbage down.

Just a little bit of butter is all you need.

It wants to be in there for no more than about a couple of minutes.

And of course, our champ, I'm going to just enrich this with a bit of cream.

Now, once your cabbage is done, you can throw that in.

Put the pan back on the heat to finish off our onions.

And keep the cabbage nice and green by frying it.

Don't boil it.

Keep the color and keep the taste in there.

So we'll just leave that on there to keep warm.

What you do with the onions is once they're cooked, we just cut them straight in half.

This is why keeping that root on is really quite essential.

Hot pan on the stove.

Little bit of oil.

And we pop the onions in, the cut side down.

What we want to do with these is to char them around the edge.

This is where you'll get a really nice flavor to it.

So while the onions are cooking away nicely, the champ's done, the beef is almost finished.

I'm going to do a little parsley oil with this.

And to make parsley oil, it's quite simple.

Well, in fact, really simple.

It's parsley and oil.

In your blender.

Two minutes-- done.

[whirring] See how easy it is to make.

This lovely herb oil, and how the colour of it, it's fabulous.

That's perfect for what we need.

So I'll just finish off the beef now.

It's a good idea to season this at the end, really, of the cooking.

The meat just-- if I press it, it just starts to fall apart.

So the onions are still cooking away nicely.

We can then turn the heat off now.

That's what we're after-- you see that blackened bit?

That caramelization that we get from our onions.

It's not burnt, it's caramelized.

Lovely.

And then, to simply plate this, we can take a dollop of our nice, warm, seasoned champ.

I can lift out these onions.

Just allow these to cool slightly.

And then you've got a massive nugget of beef.

Beautiful piece of beef.

Put a little bit of the sauce over the top.

We've got some of our simple parsley oil, which gives a really great flavor with this.

Just drizzle it on, and then these onions.

What you do is you grab yourself a spoon and what you'll end up with is little petals of onion, we just put a few of these around the edge.

So there you have it-- braised shin of beef with champ and whole braised onions.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): A great big hug, on a plate.

[bright music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My traveling companion and great mate, Paul Rankin and I have been discovering some amazing food, just a stone's throw from Belfast.

But without doubt, I've saved the very best till last.

I'm so looking forward to this bit.

I'm visiting a place that I came about 15 years ago-- Strangford Lough.

It's just south of Belfast and it's home to one of the finest seafoods in the world and probably the greatest food in the world-- the langoustine.

Don't get me wrong, Scotland produces amazing langoustines for sure, but nothing like these ones you'll find here.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And here it is, the stunning Strangford Lough.

It's breathtakingly beautiful.

[bright music] I've arranged to park the Mini right up at the dockside, where the fishing boat Freya is ready and waiting.

[boat engine revving] And we really don't have to head far from shore before we can start landing this most precious of ingredients.

For a chef, it really doesn't get better than this.

This is what it's all about.

Catch them very similar to you catching crabs and lobster.

What they do is take a little bit of herring in these pots and the idea is the langoustine's swimming backwards like that, and then get caught trying to get that little bit of fish.

But, just look at that.

That to me is gold-- ocean gold, is that.

So just a beautiful thing.

But I can't believe us Brits don't eat more of these.

I mean, it's just utter madness.

They export these to China, Asia, all over the world.

Beautiful, beautiful creature.

Look at that.

You literally don't get any fresher.

And the reason why we're wearing gloves, and last time I was here, you didn't have to wear gloves, is that for some reason, it's obviously down to the weather, that there are millions of jellyfish, everywhere.

For me, there are many jewels of the ocean, don't get me wrong, but right here in Strangford Lough, if you're a purist, it doesn't get any better than Strangford Lough langoustines.

It really doesn't.

The flavor.

The taste.

Lunch.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I cannot wait to cook these.

So we quickly reset the pots, ready for the next catch, and make our way back to the dock.

Now, you know me, I get excited about food, but right now, I'm almost peeing myself because these are amazing.

These-- I cannot tell you how good they taste, and I've got some cooking in here.

They take about three minutes, and I'm also going to griddle some as well.

So let's just split these in half, because you can cook these on a barbecue, particularly when you get them this sort of size.

So grab yourself some whole, lovely langoustine.

Little bit of oil.

This is just some veg oil, we don't want any of that fancy olive oil on here.

Nice and simple flavors.

And all we do is just stick them straight on the griddle.

Straight down on the griddle plate and cook those gently, as they are.

The thing about these little fellas, they come in different sizes.

These are the larger ones, so all I'm going to do is just give these probably three minutes, a bit like the boiling water as well.

Meanwhile, I can prepare the rest of our ingredients.

We're going to use some of these.

These are Comber potatoes from literally over there.

These are grown on the banks of this amazing lough, and these are delicious in a lovely little salad.

So first of all, we're going to make a mayonnaise.

Now for that, we grab some eggs.

A couple of egg yolks.

About three will probably do for this one, because all the while, we're chasing on the timing for these lovely fellas.

Pop a little bit of mustard in here.

And then, with mayonnaise, you can make this out of rapeseed oil, you can make it out of olive oil, but generally as a rule of thumb, you've got to do it out of plain veg oil.

Now the langoustine are just about there, so all I'm going to use is a bit of spring onion to hold that together.

Bit of wine, and then we can lift these off.

Now, one thing you don't really want to do with these is overcook them.

Look at the size of them.

Now normally, when you're cooking these, and the ones that I'm used to cooking in the restaurant, because they're the ones that you can only get, you cook these for about a minute.

Now unlike the lobster, you can then blanch the lobsters in cold water to stop the cooking.

What I generally do with these is leave them, like that, and cool down.

Food is just a magical thing when you see it like this.

You don't have to do anything with it.

In fact, to be honest with you, I would just basically leave it at that.

Just with a squeeze of lemon, glass of wine.

Look at it.

It's magical, this place.

Look, whisk this.

Now to make your own mayonnaise is a walk in the park.

It's basically egg yolks.

It's mustard.

It's veg oil.

Veg oil is it.

Nothing else.

And you carefully pour in the veg oil while whisking.

I'm just going to flip these over.

Look at these.

Look at these beauties.

[gasps] Little bit of oil.

Look at the Flesh-- Look at that.

Keep whisking.

[whisking] Now, in comfort of your own home, you can use a machine for this.

Just gradually, gradually add the oil.

If you add the oil too quickly, it separates and splits.

Basically, you've knackered it and you need to start again.

So gradually, gradually.

Now, once you get to that stage, we'll then just take these off.

Absolutely delicious, these, on a barbecue.

But whatever you do, keep your eye on them.

Don't put them on there and wander off and speak to granny next door over the fence.

You know.

You don't want to overcook these.

At the same time now, we can take some of these potato breads.

Put a few bits on there to warm up.

All the while, we'll continue whisking.

Nice and simple.

For the potato salad, we can grab ourselves a bowl and chop up our Comber potatoes.

Leave the skins on as well.

I don't know why people do that with potatoes.

All the flavors in the skins as well, so much of the time, so just leave the skins on it.

That's part of the flavor of the potato.

Potatoes go in.

A few bits of spring onions.

[chopping] Use the entire lot as well.

Throw that in there.

Take a bit of the mayonnaise.

Good dollop.

Salt and pepper.

[grinding] Bit of dill-- not too much.

Just give this a quick mix together and you've got this potato salad.

Now this is non-fancy food, so look.

Just stick it like that.

This is how I had it when I came here 15 years ago and I fell in love with this place ever since.

It is ace.

Now, in fact, I shouldn't waffle on about too much, otherwise-- look, the road's clear.

You come back in three years' time, I'll get the blame by all the locals, you see.

It'll all be gridlocked.

Just squeeze of lemon.

And that's it.

That's your lemon mayonnaise done.

Touch of salt and pepper.

[mixing] And then you can just have a dollop of this-- just dotted around.

This is how I think one of the finest ingredients in the world should be served.

Plain, simple.

Take a bit of the old potato bread.

Chuck it up, if you want.

Few random bits in there.

Get these out of the way.

[light music] Because you want to see all the lovely langoustine.

And then, finally, just serve it with the wedge of lemon.

And there you have it.

You will not find a finer ingredient than this, anywhere in the world, I promise you.

Anywhere.

Look at that-- nugget of white.

Why on Earth in the 1970s we used to cover this in breadcrumbs.

Scampi in a basket.

What on Earth we were playing at.

Look at this!

Look at this.

That is the finest ingredient in the world.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So I guess I better share these with a mate.

I knew you'd turn up for these.

I-- I-- [laughs] well, I'm the one who told you about them.

Exactly, you did, 15 years ago.

PAUL RANKIN: And you know what these are?

These are prawns.

- Prawns.

- Prawns, man.

I know, they're aren't they?

Strangford prawns.

It's been a good day, huh?

It's been amazing, ain't it?

Have you enjoyed it?

Yeah.

Amazing beef in Dromore.

Proper, eight week aged in a salt aging room.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah, you enjoyed that?

I know what to buy you for your birthday.

Golfing lessons.

PAUL RANKIN: The golf-- I was all right.

JAMES MARTIN: Word of advice, you need a few more golf balls than what you already had.

[laughter] PAUL RANKIN: But the jewel in the crown?

It's got to be, ain't it, really?

Yeah.

I mean, this area is so rich in amazing food, but to end my trip in Northern Ireland to that.

It doesn't get any better, does it?

PAUL RANKIN: Ah, it's brilliant.

And you know what you do after?

- What's that?

You wipe your hand on your mate's shirt.

[laughs] Go on, then.

Go on, then.

Go on.

- No, I'm not going to do that.

A mate wouldn't do that.

It's nice you've got the potato bread in there too.

Mm.

And the Comber potatoes-- oh, you dirty-- did he just do that?

[theme music]