Now, I've been quite privileged in my job as a chef to travel to so many different countries, but there is a place that has it all.

[light music] From farmers to fishermen-- planes, trains, and automobiles-- [plane revving] Woo hoo!

And phenomenal seafood.

That is the finest ingredient in the world.

How good does that look?

And it houses some of the greatest chefs in the world, that just happened to be a few of my mates.

How good is that?

That's sensational, absolutely sensational.

It's good suspension on a mini.

[laughter] Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

[upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm on an epic trip around the United Kingdom, and right now, I'm in bonny Scotland, making my way through the UK's largest national park-- the Cairngorms, in the heart of the Scottish Highlands.

JAMES MARTIN: I swear there is no finer place in the world.

It is absolutely beautiful up here, and I'm on my way now to meet a chef who's arguably one of Scotland's finest, who is a massive fan of the ingredients Scotland produces, and he told me to meet him somewhere down here.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's none other than my good mate, Tom Kitchen, and he certainly knows how to get my attention.

[laughs] Butter!

[laughs] [honking] It's like the Dukes of Hazzard.

Cheers, fella-- yeah.

I recognize that sign.

I know where you're going, TOM KITCHEN: Butter, chef, eh?

We need some butter, some cream, maybe some ale.

Maybe, yeah.

So good to see you, pal.

TOM KITCHEN: Brilliant, and look at this.

And look at the weather.

You got-- Aye.

It's always like this in Scotland.

Yeah, right.

[laughs] It's-- when the weather closes in, It's equally special.

Yeah, no, that's what's magical, is that you have all the different weathers, you have all the different temperatures, and from a foodies' point of view, that's why we have got this incredible larder, you know?

You've got the best larder in-- I think it's the best larder in the world.

That's something you can't argue with.

You know, whether it's the shellfish which you saw up in Orkney, or whether it's the game.

Whether-- you know, this area here, Perthshire, I was born in this area.

You know, we've got the wild salmon, we've got the sea trout, we've got the venison, we've got the grouse, we've got red berries which are to die for.

They are amazing.

Because it's just absolutely fantastic.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Tom and I are in the Cairngorms National Park, which covers 1,748 square miles, just south of Inverness, and west of Aberdeen.

The park is home to five of the UK's six highest mountains.

And just on the southwest edge of the park lies Blair Castle, a proper Scottish Highland estate.

Don't tell anyone, but we always head up that way looking for mushrooms.

Really?

Absolutely fantastic for wild mushrooms, yeah.

Don't tell anyone.

Don't tell anyone, you just told about two million people, you muppet.

[laughter] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So this is Blair Castle, home to the Atholl Highlanders, the UK's only private army, and hosts of the Highland Games, amongst other things.

I think we're going to fit right in here.

We're meeting with Sandy Reid, and he's taking us on a tour of the estate.

He's worked here for over 60 years, so we're in very capable hands.

Hello, Sandy.

SANDY REID: Hi there.

Good to see you.

James.

- Hello.

- Sandy, I'm Tom.

Nice to meet you.

- Yeah.

OK.

Right, we got to change vehicles, apparently.

Yeah we're going up the hill.

JAMES MARTIN: Jump in the back.

- Hop on.

Yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: All right.

Hop on.

- We're in the back.

- Ooh.

Yeah.

Right.

Me in first?

I'm not on your knee, chef.

No.

Get in there!

A fine wee lad.

[grunting] Right.

JAMES MARTIN: So, Sandy, where are we going?

SANDY REID: Er, we're going away up, about 2,600 feet.

Did he say we're going 2,600 feet?

I think I heard that right.

Yeah, if you can't translate it, then I've got no hope.

[laughter] So how big's the estate?

It's 145,000 acres.

Oh.

Quite a decent sized garden.

145,000 acres?

SANDY REID: We have about seven and a half thousand red deer, sort of on any given day, like, you know?

JAMES MARTIN: Seven and a half thousand deer?

SANDY REID: We're going to go up to the top of that hill there.

That's Ben Hat.

This is a new road we're on here now.

JAMES MARTIN: Oh, it's the new road, is it?

SANDY REID: Aye, from the shed here around to the bothy on the other side.

It's 4 and 3/4 miles we've got-- I got it made about 40 years ago.

And that's the new road.

JAMES MARTIN: [laughs] That's the new road.

TOM KITCHEN: Aye, it is.

SANDY REID: Ah, that's near enough edge, maybe, uh?

TOM KITCHEN: That's it, Sandy.

JAMES MARTIN: That's it.

See what we can see.

[exciting music] JAMES MARTIN: Look at that.

So where are we, Sandy?

Where is-- where is this?

SANDY REID: This is [?

when ?]

here in front of us.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

And then when you look way, way over on the snow and that there-- JAMES MARTIN: There's still snow on the top there?

SANDY REID: Aye, that's into the Cairngorms.

And then when you cross on, onto the next bit, that's the Fiddler's Cairn.

And that's where Inverness-Shire, Aberdeenshire, and Perthshire all meet, on that top there.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Stunning.

An amazing landscape for those seven and a half thousand deer to roam in.

And the perfect inspiration for a wonderful venison dish that I'm going to cook back down in the grounds of the castle.

So I'm here in the castle's walled garden, and it really is beautiful here.

Now, I've sent Tom off to do a bit of foraging because there's so much that he can find in the woodlands around here, and I've done a bit of foraging of my own, and I've got some lovely fennel, and I'm going to do this with just a simple dish.

Now, I would be crazy not to use the amazing venison that's all around here, so I've got in here a lovely bit of loin of venison.

You can use loin or fillet but it's beautiful, you can see how tender it is, just when you hold it.

So I've got a hot pan over here, and I'm going to simply cook it with a variety of different things I'll get to in a minute, but I want to-- want to get this on first.

So a bit of black pepper, and some salt, on both sides.

So season it well as well.

Little bit of oil, like that.

And then, because venison is really nice and tender, one thing we do have to make sure is we don't overcook it.

So straight into the pan.

[sizzling] And kind of treat it like a steak.

So really now, the clock's ticking once it's in there.

Now it does need time to rest as well.

Quickly wash my hands.

Clean down a bit.

Now the garnish for this just brings in all these lovely flavors of fantastic venison.

So first of all, I'm going to take the red cabbage.

Now, so often with this you'd have it pickled with venison, but you can cook this simply-- griddle it, which is delicious.

And we're just going to chop this red cabbage into pieces, like that.

Now, I always try and keep the root on it because it holds it together a little bit.

So, touch of olive oil on our griddle.

And then start to almost char this cabbage.

Now, so often with cabbage, you just put it in a pan with redcurrant.

On a griddle, this is amazing.

So simply griddle that.

At the same time, we've got the nice shallots.

I'm just going to chop these up as well.

Pop them on our griddle, and get them cooking.

Little bit on there.

And while that's happening, be rude not to, really, when you're in this beautiful place.

Pour yourself a glass of wine.

Because this place is really amazing.

You only really get the scale from when we were right at the top.

You see the size of the whole estate.

It's just beautiful.

[sizzling] It's not bad wine, that.

Then, see, the venison is just cooking nicely.

Now, at this moment in time, we can add a touch of butter to this.

Start to get a little bit more color on the venison.

Like that.

Cabbage is cooking away nicely.

You get this love-- that's what we're looking for-- nice little sort of charred bit, as well.

Touch of that.

And at the same time, I've got a little bit of beetroot.

Beetroot, of course, I've cooked this beforehand.

We can just basically just chop this up into any old pieces.

Now, if you've got a garden at home, several things that are quite easy to grow, and beetroot is one of them.

You kind of just plant it and really forget about it.

So whack the little bit of beetroot in there.

So we've got a little venison, we'll flip that over now.

Cook the other side.

So keep that cooking away nicely.

Check our little bit of shallots, which are not far off.

We'll flip them over.

See, I always say all the time, if food looks good, you know, you're halfway there, really.

And the simplicity of what you've got to cook with up here, I mean, that's the great thing-- it's like God's larder out there, it really is.

It's just fabulous.

Simply cooked.

[sizzling] And venison like this.

If you've never tried it, I urge you to try it.

This is just a perfect-- say.

It's beginner's piece to try, and it really is.

If you want to try and experiment it, with it for the first time, then have a go with this.

Just simply pan fried, like that.

Perfect.

Right, and then we've got our chard.

Now this is rainbow chard, another thing that's so easy to grow in your garden.

Different colours.

You can just basically rip it up.

You don't have to be too precise with it.

It's not like spinach where you've got to strip it from the leaves, because a lot of the flavor is in the stalk.

So don't-- don't just go throwing it all away, like that.

Keep a bit of that.

Lovely.

So you can prepare it all nice and simply.

Now, another thing that I found just the other side of this wall, is this-- wild garlic.

It's beautiful.

Now, you can eat the entire lot of this.

Absolutely delicious.

So simply, those are prepared.

You don't need to do anything with the leaves.

Don't mess around with it.

Our venison is now about there, so we'll take this out-- like that.

[sizzling] Leave that to rest, because it's important to leave it to rest.

Have a quick turn around with all this lot.

Warming up the beetroot.

Now, into our pan.

We've got a lot of gubbins in here, as I call it, and this is why it's important not to add too much oil to the pan.

So before you make your sauce, make sure you've got a nice glass of wine.

And deglaze the pan with a touch of wine.

Don't want too much.

This is a little cheffy trick, really, for this.

You can increase the flavor with a touch of balsamic vinegar, but a tiny bit of balsamic.

You don't want too much that you're not making fish and chips.

It's just a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar.

Now, you've got these little tubs of stock.

Now these are fantastic.

This almost makes an instant sauce.

This is a little bit of beef stock.

And what I love with venison, this is a bit of redcurrant jelly.

Great combination, of course.

Touch in there.

But you've just got a simple little bit of redcurrant jelly.

Now you can spike this up if you want, in terms of flavour, by adding either of these two-- a little bit of star anise, and just a few juniper berries.

Now, it's a good idea to count them in if you're cooking this for your gran, because otherwise you're going to need to go to the dentist.

If you get one of these stuck in between the dentures, it properly kicks off.

I fact, count them in, count them out, and you just want a little bit of flavour in there, and already, you can see this-- lovely little sauce appearing in the pan, which is the redcurrant jelly as it starts to dissolve.

You've got all those lovely juices, and the gubbins from everything else.

I'll just move our cabbage out of the way.

And then on here, now, we can turn our attention to the rest of this.

Simply, when you've got everything ready, you can then start to throw everything in.

So a little bit of oil on our griddle.

You can do this in a pan, of course.

You've got the chard.

That can just go on.

And it wilts down like spinach, really, particularly this young chard.

That's going to go on there.

Little bit of the old wild garlic, in amongst it, like that.

And just allow this to wilt down slightly.

Little bit more oil, just a touch.

Some salt and pepper.

[grinding] Now as you get opportunity to take out your little bit of star anise, and your little bit of juniper.

What we need to do now is enrich this sauce.

Add a little bit of butter to this.

And then we're ready to plate it, so quite simply, I'll take my nice little cabbage chargrilled.

This is why I love cooking stuff like this, particularly on these little griddles.

Little bit of beetroot.

All the while, your sauce is reducing down, like that.

Now you can just give it a quick mix, as it starts to wilt down nicely.

[gentle music] Lift this off, sprinkle it around.

Just look at the colours on there.

Look, look, look, look, look, look, look!

Look at that.

I love cooking onions like this.

All the while, the sauce is reducing down.

I'll switch everything off now, because this is about there.

You can see this as it starts to reduce down, it goes lovely and sticky which is exactly what we want.

And then, we can then slice our lovely venison.

I'll move this to one side.

But you can see, look-- slice this.

Look at that.

Bit for the chef.

Dunk in the sauce.

[gentle music] If you've never-- oh!

If you've never tried venison before, just try it.

Trust me, it's-- oh, it's just absolutely delicious.

But whatever you do, don't overcook it.

It's really a sin for all this, but it's just beautiful.

And then, finally, we've just got a few things left.

We've got our nice little shallots.

Now, when we you cook shallots like this, they open out little petals and I wanted to do this because they're like little flower petals, you see?

As you open them out.

Bit of that.

And then, you've got your nice lovely rich sauce over the top.

I just love dishes like this.

They're so honest.

It's just-- especially given the surroundings where you are, it's just-- they make you want to eat them.

And then, wild garlic, and the wild garlic flowers.

And then there's one more thing.

Just a few little blackberries in amongst it all.

I'm chuffed to bits with that.

Local venison, with garden veg and foraged wild garlic.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): That's my locally sourced loin of venison.

Now it's time to see what an expert makes of my dish.

Well, Sandy, go on then.

I'm under pressure now.

- You think I should?

- I don't know.

It's your venison.

We'll give it a wee-- hang on a wee minute and see if we can.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

Sauce is all in there.

Dip it in a nice sauce.

Give it a wee-- a wee dabble there.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

Mm.

That's OK.

I'll give that a pass.

[laughs] You had me worried, then.

Yes, well-- I'll give it a pass.

Yeah?

Yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: It's beautiful venison.

Mm.

Nice and soft and tender.

Mm.

Happy with that?

- Loads of flavor in it.

- Yeah?

- Mm.

- OK.

I'm going to finish it off having a drink.

If you'd like to wash this up when you're done, that'll be great, Sandy, cheers.

No, I'm going to have another wee bit.

JAMES MARTIN: All right.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Earlier, I sent Tom off on a foraging mission, in search of something rather special.

What I really love about Scotland at this time of year is the abundance of wild produce that you can find, especially in a woodland like this.

And today I'm going to go look for one of my favorites-- chicken of the woods.

[gentle music] Oh, ho, ho, ho.

Look at that.

Now, this is a cracking mushroom.

This is what we call the pheasant-back mushroom.

You can tell by the beautiful colours on it.

It looks a bit like the feathers on a pheasant.

Um, I love this.

I love to barbecue it, add lots of chopped garlic and parsley, good salt, pepper, nice bit of olive oil.

I'm going to have to take this one with us, you know.

[sniffs] Oh, delicious.

Right, I'm going to pop this in the car, and then I'm going to get back out there because there's a lot more to be had.

If you want to learn more about foraging, then you've got to get out there in the woods with someone who knows what they're doing.

You've got to be sure you're picking the right stuff.

[bright music] Now, look what we've got here.

Look on this Sycamore tree.

This is the chicken of the woods.

They look like they've dried quite a lot there, but my goodness, that's a good crop.

I am so excited about this.

Right, I've got my trusty mushroom knife.

Let's see if we can get some of these bad boys off.

Oh!

Look at that.

Oh!

Happy chef here, because I know I've found the chicken of the woods today, and I know that's the start of the mushroom season though.

That's why Scotland is so famous for mushrooms, because we've got this incredible woodland.

We've got rain, sun, rain, sun.

It's mushroom paradise.

At the restaurant, we have foragers who bring a bountifuls of produce from forests just like this.

You know, lots of wild mushrooms like this, wild herbs, things that we use in different salads, and [sniffs] I can even smell it from here-- wild garlic.

[light music] Wild garlic grows all over the UK and it grows in abundance so there's lots to pick.

I like to use it at home, I like to make a pesto and put it through pasta, or even open some mussels, white wine, shallots, and then throw in the chopped wild garlic at the end.

So, James, I know exactly what I do with these beauties, but what about you?

What would you do?

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Well, I haven't got any chicken of the woods, but I love all wild mushrooms, and I've got a lovely selection to cook with.

JAMES MARTIN: Now, this is a great, simple dish.

Mushrooms on toast, but with a poached duck egg.

But first of all, I'm going to make the sauce for this.

The sauce for this is quite straightforward.

I'm just going to take some shallot first of all, and some garlic.

[chopping] Now, you don't have to be too precise with this, because I'm going to blend it anyway, so a little bit of shallot, just a touch of garlic.

Not too much, because I want the flavour of the mushrooms to come out more than anything else.

And the mushrooms that I've got in here are a range of farm-produce mushrooms, which are the shiitake and the brown cap, together with these-- lovely little girolles.

These wonderful wild mushrooms.

It's quite difficult to get hold of fresh wild mushrooms nowadays.

I don't know why, because we produce them all around the UK.

But as you've seen from Tom there, there's chicken in the woods, I mean, they're incredible.

They grow to be massive, but you've really got to know what you're doing, if you go searching for wild mushrooms.

But I'm going to get the sauce on for this first of all, so bit of onions and garlic in here, and then throw the mushrooms in.

I'm not really bothered about colouring these, i.e.

Frying them, because this is really for our sauce.

So once you've got all your mushrooms in there, now we can add some double cream.

[pouring, hissing] And you want to bring this to the boil now, and cook this gently, for about four to five minutes.

Meanwhile, we can prepare everything else.

So for our poached eggs, boiling water and a touch of white wine vinegar.

You wouldn't use malt vinegar, it flavours the egg too much.

And a nice pinch of salt.

Duck eggs have a lovely, rich, fantastic flavor.

Brilliant for poaching and certainly brilliant with mushrooms.

So you get this nice and boiling, and what you want to do is create this little whirlpool in the centre, and you crack the egg and just drop it bang in the middle.

As the water spins round, you can see it coating the yolk.

So while our duck egg is poaching nicely and our sauce is cooking away, we can then turn our attention to the rest of our ingredients.

For that, we want some shallots, finely, finely diced.

[chopping] Because mushrooms cook very, very quickly, so make sure the shallot and the garlic is nice and finely chopped.

And with the mushrooms, try not to wash them.

Just basically brush them off, rather than wash them.

Mushrooms absorb moisture like a sponge and then what happens is, once you're frying them, if the pan is not hot enough, they just dump it all out into the pan, and end up ruining this.

They should fry.

But when they're in season, there's nothing like them.

So once they're prepared, our egg is nearly ready.

Just lift this out, and I like to have just a bit of cold water and just sit the egg in the water, to stop it cooking, really, and then start again.

[upbeat music] I can then get ready for our toast, and for that, I want just a little bit of oil.

And I'm going to use some sourdough for this, and it's perfect to go with mushrooms.

So just lightly toast this until it's golden brown on each side.

[upbeat music continues] So once the bread's done, your eggs are ready, I can turn my attention to the mushrooms.

Now, whenever you're cooking mushrooms, a really hot pan.

In we go with mushrooms, in with the shallots and the garlic.

[rattling] Keep the pan nice and hot.

A little bit of parsley.

Some black pepper, and a pinch of salt.

At the same time now, we can finish up our sauce, just by blending it.

[whirring] And then just to simply plate this, you've got your toast.

Something great about just mushrooms on toast.

And then, of course, you've got your egg.

You can lift this out, pop it back in the water.

Just let that gently warm up for about 20 seconds.

You can use pheasant eggs as well, if you can get a hold of them.

Obviously, hen's eggs, but duck eggs are amazing.

[bright music] And then, finally, this is a little bit of luxury for sure-- black truffle.

But the best bit about this is, of course, poached eggs.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): There may not be quite as dramatic as Tom's foraged haul but these wild mushrooms on toast with poached duck eggs are out of this world.

[exciting music] I'm exploring Blair Castle, in the Scottish Highlands, where once a year, they host the Highland Games.

I'm meeting brothers David and Harry, who are going to see if they can teach this old dog new tricks.

JAMES MARTIN: Impressive stuff.

Hey.

How are you doing?

You all right?

- Not bad, not bad.

- All right.

David, good to see you.

- Yeah, you too.

Good to see you.

Now, tell me what all this is about, then?

Because this is kind of uniquely bonkers.

What is it supposed to represent, anyway?

Is it basically just for strength?

Yeah, aye, well, originally it was like the clan chiefs would use it as a method of identifying the biggest, strongest men to act as his bodyguards, so they'd put on these kind of gatherings every so often, and you'd get all the kind of big Highlanders would come down and throw stones, or as you say, tossed trees and just-- Anything so-- and I mean, your family do this pretty well, don't they, really?

Yeah, yeah.

- Four of you are brothers-- - Yeah.

--but your whole family are doing this Yeah, no, aye, well, my older brother, he started first and he's just-- he's one of the top in the game now.

He's out at world championships in Victoria there, and so we're just kind of chasing him now and he's chasing me, as well.

He's chasing-- you're all chasing each other.

- Yeah.

- Aye.

So you can actually travel-- travel with the whole thing and do the entire circuit in a year?

Yeah, well, I've been out to New Zealand and Australia, at Highland Games as well, and then you go to Ireland now and again as well.

So it's-- so in America, it's massive as well.

Well, I can't come all this way without having a go then.

So do I go for that one, or that one?

We'll give you a wee warm up, go with that one there, the now, sure.

I'm quite happy with that, I'll go for that one.

No, definitely.

JAMES MARTIN: So this is a small one.

HARRY: Aye, it's a wee-- wee junior one.

So are they done on weight?

Length?

Initially, it is, like, when we go into our games, we'll measure the caber in length, like it's weights.

They look heavy, but they're not going to go above 80, 90 kilos, so it's-- it's the lightest-- How much?

How much?

About 80, 90 kilos.

They'll no go above that.

Like, the heaviest cabers will be-- that'll be the limit.

How much do you weigh?

Not sure in kilos, about 80, but my body weight, I think.

So chucking you over the field?

Yeah.

[laughs] Not very heavy then, is it, really?

[laughter] What-- what's the whole idea of the game, is you got-- throw it up so it-- All you need to do is give a wee kind of flick up and it's-- it'll go itself and if you-- Give it a wee flick up with 80 kilos.

HARRY: Aye.

Let's just get-- - I love Scotland.

It's great, innit?

The objective is to get that end over that end at a perfect 12.

So you got to get this-- the way you think about it is you've got to get that top end moving as fast as you can.

[uplifting music] So then you've got to-- are you right handed, I take it?

Trust me, with this, it makes no difference.

[laughs] I am right-handed.

So you've got to interlock your fingers.

Like that?

On the other side, right, you put your arms round, that's you.

- Alright, OK.

HARRY: And then you want to grip the caber and then stand up with it, right, that's you.

If you feel it against your shoulder, as you stand up now.

You got it.

You pull it in towards you now.

- Not really, no.

But yeah, I've got it.

You got it now, yeah.

And then you've just got to-- a straight line, go on-- Cor-- bloody hell!

Right.

This is not easy, is it?

No, you keep going, like.

Once you get in, you can lift it up a wee bit higher if you want as well.

No, I'm quite with that, yeah, cheers.

You can feel it at the top, though, can't you?

Yeah, throw your hands right up the way-- - Right up.

- --not forward, yeah.

Straight up.

It'll go over.

That's it.

Jesus!

It went over twice.

JAMES MARTIN: So if you were to do that at a Games, that's a 12, yeah?

HARRY: Yeah.

- Ish?

Aye, that'll be bang on, 12 like.

That'll be 12.

I'm quite happy with that.

HARRY: Yeah, very good.

Perfect.

Get in.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): From classic Scottish games to classic Scottish ingredients.

I'm making a dish fit for a Highland Gamer.

Now, I'm going to do a wonderful dish using probably one of my favorite Scottish ingredients-- Arbroath smokies.

These are smoked haddock, but hot smoked haddock.

And what it produces is this amazing, amazing flesh that you can transform into so many different things.

What we have to do with, though, is warm them up.

It's much easier to take them apart once they're warmed up.

So stick them in the oven.

Now I want to turn these into the-- I suppose you look at it like a Scotch egg, really, for this.

But I'm going to make a nice little dressing for this, a curried mayonnaise.

And for that, I need three egg yolks, really, for this.

Now, to make your own mayonnaise is pretty straightforward.

A bit of mustard.

Dijon mustard is perfect for this.

A touch of vinegar.

And then mix in the oil.

Now, what I've got in here is like a, really a veg oil, really.

Ideally, what you want is one that's got very little flavor.

Gradually, just pour the oil in while whisking.

[bright music] Now you can leave this as it is if you wanted to.

But what I love with particularly stuff like haddock is a touch of curry.

I've got in here some curry powder.

Just mix this to a paste, just with a little bit of water.

[whisking] Bit of seasoning.

And that's your little dressing done.

Next bit is all about the haddock.

All you're doing, really, is warming these through.

They only take about five minutes, and I've got some of this wonderful meat that I've done anyway, but literally all you do is you start off with the skin.

Peel it off.

The flavor of this is just off the charts.

It really is, I think, one of my favorite ingredients that comes out of Scotland.

Now, to make these, you want about equal quantities of haddock to potato, and I've got in here some baked potato, put through a potato ricer.

Bit of Black pepper.

Now remember the fish has been in Brine so the only salt that you really need is ones to flavor the potato.

And then I'm going to get this mixture ready now, which is basically to pané.

It's a mixture of flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.

Beat up your egg.

Mix the fish and the potato together.

And then rather than a Scotch egg being a hard-boiled egg, what I've got here is I've got soft-boiled eggs.

Now, these have taken six minutes in boiling water, refreshed in ice cold water, and then peeled.

And all we do now is grab yourself a handful of this mix, press it down, and you want a little hole in the center of it.

Now, you've got to be careful with these because these are soft-boiled eggs, because you don't want to break that egg inside, because that's the surprise in the middle of it.

[bright music] So now what you want to do with this is what we call double dip-- a double pané.

It's basically flour, egg, and then back in the flour again, back in the egg, and then in the crumb.

Roll it around.

And we just leave that to one side.

So flour, then in the egg.

If you think of this as like the glue.

Back in the flour, back in the egg, and finally in the crumb.

Now the cooking it is pretty straightforward.

It's very different to making a classic Scotch egg, the one that's filled with pork, because you've got to concentrate on the temperature of that, because you're cooking the filling, whereas this, everything inside is already cooked anyway.

So what we need to do is make sure that they're nice and round, first of all, and then simply just drop them in.

Now be very careful if you're deep frying them like this.

Always do it in a deep fat fryer, ideally.

But they don't take very long.

These are going to cook in about three or four minutes.

[gentle music] Now to simply serve these, you don't have to do anything with them.

Just on the little board like that.

Just put a nice little pot of that, by the side.

But the best part of this, as opposed to a normal Scotch egg, is this surprise right in the centre.

The moment of truth.

[laughs] They don't taste too bad either.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So there you have it.

My Arbroath smoky Scotch eggs, with curried mayo.

That'll put hairs on the chest of any young Highland gamer.

[upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My traveling companion, Tom Kitchen, and I are loving our time in the Scottish Highlands.

We've met up again with Sandy, and we're back in his trusty four by four because we've been invited to fish in the Duke of Atholl's Water, just a short distance from Blair Castle itself.

You're a keen fisherman, aren't you?

Well, you are, you are.

I'm keen, that doesn't mean I'm good.

But what, what was-- what's the biggest-- because I haven't caught anything.

Last time I was in Scotland, nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing for four days.

I'm quite good at catching mackerel.

Yeah, that was-- but you ever caught a wild salmon?

Never.

- Never?

- Never.

That's my dream.

My dream.

My dream.

- OK.

Today could be the day.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): The river we're heading to is a truly stunning place to fish, and hopefully gillie Sandy will help us catch something.

Now, no trip to Scotland would be complete without a go at fishing for salmon on the river.

Now, this is the river that runs through the estate, so what's this one called?

This is the Garry, the River Garry.

Garry.

Now, you look quite handy at this, Tom.

This is my treat to you, all right?

I'm going to try my luck a little bit further down.

And then I'm going to cook you both something to eat.

All right?

SANDY REID: That's OK.

- Sounds good, yeah.

I'm expecting great things Yeah, so are we, yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: So are we, yeah.

[laughter] Yeah.

[gentle music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's a beautiful location, but to be honest, once again, I'm having no luck at catching anything.

I think I'll leave it to the experts, while I get on and cook.

Otherwise, we're never going to eat.

Now, often I get asked, why are you cook in sort of weird locations?

Well, why not?

I mean, doesn't get any more Scottish than this, does it?

One of Scotland's finest chefs.

Any salmon that they catch has to be put back, so I've gone to the supermarket and I've got Scottish salmon and it is amazing, this dish.

So, so simple.

And so simple, you can actually cook it in waders, on a little gas burner.

So the first thing we do is cook our salmon for this one.

Now, very simply, what I'm going to do is just chop this up into nice little pieces.

Now it's important that it's kind of been pin boned, really.

The easiest way to do that and check that before cooking them, is just run your finger down the center of the fillet.

That's where you'll find most of them.

Just pull them out.

Just take a nice piece of salmon and just simply cook them.

So some black pepper.

[grinding] A pinch of salt, like that.

And then some oil, just a drizzle of oil on here.

Not too much because we're going to create a sauce in this pan as well.

So I don't want it to be oily, really.

So what we'll do is just take a little bit of the oil and pop our salmon in there.

[sizzling] I'll just move that to one side.

Get rid of that.

Meanwhile, wash my hands.

Now, I did have a tea towel around my waist, but it's gone down in my waders.

It's by my left foot, I can't be bothered.

I can't find it.

Anyway, dry your hands and then we're going to simply cook this, so the point of this is simplicity, really.

So while your salmon's cooking, it takes about three, maybe four minutes on one side.

Probably a couple minutes on the other side.

And generally, people always overcook a piece of salmon like this.

So we're just going to simply cook it like this.

Meanwhile, we'll prepare the rest of our ingredients, which we've got some fennel, garlic, and shallots.

So nicely finely chopped for this one.

So take the shallot first, and the reason why we finely chop it, because this is all in one pan or one griddle and we're going to cook this quite quickly, so the onions don't want to be too large.

Checking out that wine glass.

Do you know what I need?

[splashing] A nice chilled glass of white.

You can't go fishing without a glass of white wine, or a beer.

And that is mighty fine.

So we'll just chop this up, like that.

Nice and fine.

Lose that out of the way.

Meanwhile, bit of garlic.

[chopping] It's purely optional whether you want you garlic.

You don't have to put it in if you don't want.

Simple bit of garlic.

But really, this, while the salmon's cooking, and as you just prepare the rest of the ingredients.

So your shallots, the garlic are nicely chopped.

The fennel-- now, this is amazing, this sort of stuff, with salmon, and particularly seafood.

It's wonderful.

But for this thinly, thinly sliced because we want it to cook quite quickly.

So just thinly slice our nice fennel, like that.

He's moving along a bit, he's loving it, absolutely loving it.

If there was ever a chef that loves the outdoors, it's that fella.

Now, this is what I mean about the salmon.

Forget me, Ash-- look, look.

It's all about this fish.

Just look, you can see it cooking halfway up the side.

And the salmon is a prime example of this, that you don't want to turn it over too early, so try not to mess around with food too much, particularly when you're cooking with fish.

It goes in the pan, turn it over once, that's it.

No stress, no grief.

It's like fishing, you see?

No stress, no grief.

Just leave it like that.

Meanwhile, we can prepare the rest of it.

I've got these wonderful little Scottish cherry tomatoes, so all I'm going to do with these is just cut them in half, really, for these fellas.

So, try to.

There.

Cut them in half.

And the whole point about this is the speed at which everything cooks, and the simplicity of which everything cooks, because you've got just simple ingredients.

So chop the tommies up.

That's probably enough.

And then I've got a selection of different seafoods here.

Now, I've got some beautiful langoustines, and I've got some mussels, I got some lovely crayfish.

Right, For this, nice and simple.

We'll then take our salmon and turn this over, so you can see it cooking halfway up.

Once it cooks halfway, we'll just turn it over.

See look at the colour that you get on that.

Nice little crisp skin.

Nice and simple.

We'll just cook the other side now.

I've only turned it over once.

While that's happening, we can add all the rest of our ingredients.

So in we go first of all, with our shallots and our garlic.

In we go with our fennel.

Now this is kind of all one-pan cooking really.

That's the key to it-- simplicity.

When you've got ingredients this good, and trust me, this neck of the woods, you don't need to do much with it.

It's just so, so good, this produce.

But all in one pan, that's the best thing.

Keep all the flavoring together.

So I've got the nice salmon cooking away.

We've got the lovely bits of fennel, the garlic, and the shallots.

In we go with the tomatoes.

Now we can start concentrating on our bit of seafood.

I've got these amazing Scottish mussels.

They can go in.

Little bit of moules.

These delicious Scottish langoustine tails.

They can go in.

Bit of crawfish.

You can just use these, really.

So often, you get these in brine nowadays, from the supermarket, you walk past them and not knowing what to do with it.

So next time you have prawn cocktail on your dinner party menu, use these little fellas as well.

The flavor is fantastic.

So look at that colour that you getting there.

All that cooking away nicely.

Now we're going to deglaze this with a bit more wine.

You're not having that one out of there.

So we take a little bit of wine, just a touch of white wine in here.

Just look at that.

Lovely!

It's food that gets me excited, this.

Double cream.

[hissing] Bit of double cream.

Now, this will help open up our mussels, create a nice little sauce, everything else.

And then, to add some colour and some flavor to this, although there's amazing flavor in it as well, we get some saffron.

Just a tiny, tiny bit of saffron, which we'll just sprinkle this over there.

How are you getting on?

TOM KITCHEN: It's coming.

So is Christmas.

You can just see the mussels starting to open up now.

Look at these little fellas.

This little jewel of gold.

Beautiful, beautiful flavour.

And then, finally, I've got some herbs.

Just some parsley, bit of chive.

It's entirely up to you how we chop them all up, or whichever herbs you want to use, really.

Half of them are blowing in the water anyway, so it didn't really matter.

But just a sprinkling of herbs over the top.

Now normally, I would just put this on a platter, but it looks so good as it is, I'm just going to leave it in the pot.

And I'm kind of going to do nothing with it, other than just a little smidgen of salt and pepper, because we've got one of Scotland's finest chefs.

We've got to season it properly.

Bit of that.

[grinding] A bit of Black pepper.

And there you have it.

My salmon, not from the river, with crayfish, langoustines, a touch of saffron, mussels, and fennel.

Love that.

Tea's up!

[gentle music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): A perfect fish supper to enjoy on the river.

I wonder what Tom will make of it.

Oof!

Look at this.

Start at one end and work your way through it.

What I love about this is everything's in one dish.

Yeah.

It's like a one-pot wonder.

Mm!

And do you know what?

I'm falling in love with Scotland.

What a place.

What do you mean, you're falling in love with Scotland.

Well, yeah, I've always loved it but the more you come here, the more it just grabs you and embraces you.

Oh my goodness me.

What a day.

And the weather was-- I mean, weather was kind to us.

It was unbelievable.

And this, to be honest, is a perfect end to a perfect day, really.

We may not have caught anything, but it doesn't matter.

Mates together, nice bit of food, in a river.

Jobs are good one.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): What a day, what a place.

I've seen Blair Castle in all of its glory and to be honest, I've seen more than that.

Sandy taking us up right to the top of the glens.

And that view from the top was just spectacular.

And then, the Highland Games, I've never done anything like that before, and then the foraging.

I mean, the list goes on and on.

Tom and I have absolutely loved it, and to end the day on the river, trying to catch a wild Scottish salmon, it's truly magical.

[theme music]