I'm Prue Leith, cook, caterer, restaurateur, cookery school founder, and writer of 16 cookbooks.

Prue: This looks so delicious.

I'm absolutely dribbling.

Prue, voice-over: I'm in my 80s, so I haven't got time to waste.

This series is all about the things that really matter to me-- family, fun, food, and friends.

Ha ha!

I've got to let it out when I can.

♪ Ah da da da ta da ♪ Prue, voice-over: We'll be sharing simple home-cooked recipes... Oh, I did it.

And what does that do?

Well, unfortunately, it's not quite doing it.

Ha ha ha!

Prue, voice-over: and celebrating the best produce.

I'm lucky enough to live in the astonishingly beautiful Cotswolds with my long-suffering husband John, and now he's agreed to join me in the kitchen, too.

[Pop] Ooh!

♪ Prue, voice-over: Today, Kelly Brook brings a taste of Italy to the Cotswolds... Kelly: So I think I've got something you might like.

Prue, voice-over: John checks in on our resident garden owls... Aw.

Look.

and I have to put my foot down in the kitchen.

John: Why can't I do it my way?

Because I'm teaching you the classic way.

You can start getting imaginative later.

Welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Food has a power like no other-- the ability to transport you to remembered times and places.

I love it so much.

And I really like recreating the spicy, vibrant flavors I've experienced in India.

So today's recipe is a classic curry, but instead of using meat, I'm going to use paneer, which is an Indian cheese.

And it's quite mild, and it's brilliant for absorbing the flavor of curry.

♪ So that's going to be the main bit of protein in our curry.

So no meat.

Instead, cheese.

But I'm going to get the rice going straight away because it takes 11 minutes to do this rice.

And what you do is a very old-fashioned way of cooking rice.

You simply get lots of water.

You don't need to measure it.

Just fill a big saucepan with water, put a bit of salt in it, and when it boils, you tip the rice in and you boil it for exactly 11 minutes.

Now, to do the curry-- I've already started it.

You chop up an onion, and you cook it very slowly in a little bit of oil and butter until it's like this, sort of slightly translucent and just beginning to color.

And then you add garlic, ginger and chili, and they're all going to get an extra half a minute or so.

You can tell when you've fried it enough because the aroma hits you.

And then you put in a bit of tomato puree, cumin, garam masala and good old curry powder.

So then you fry them until you can smell them.

Frying or tempering spices enhances the flavor.

I don't remember when I first came across this recipe, but I know that I demonstrated it all over South Africa, and we must have done it 20 times.

And you know what?

I liked it just as much on the 20th time.

It's just such a good recipe.

And then you put in a can of chopped tomato.

As soon as that's bubbling, add the cream.

I sometimes use coconut cream, but this is just ordinary cream.

And that's going to simmer very gently while I fry the paneer.

Now, the paneer, I just want to brown the paneer a bit.

It just gives it a little bit more flavor, and it looks better.

Paneer is a fresh Indian cheese made from curdled milk, brilliant for absorbing flavor.

So it'll taste-- it doesn't taste-- To be honest-- I'm going to eat one-- it's quite boring by itself, but in a curry sauce, it's just delicious.

And it's got that nice firm texture.

It stays like this.

It doesn't melt.

We eat quite a lot of curry because John loves it.

And we both like papadams or chapatis with it or big naan, freshly made naan.

It's lovely.

Well, I think that's pretty well fried enough.

You could go on and turn every single one until you have all six sides browned.

Once fried, add the paneer to the curry, along with 100 grams of baby leaf spinach and 100 grams of frozen peas, and hope to get them all to wilt.

Right.

That must be 11 minutes now.

I've made the rice, and I'm just going to pour some hot water through it to get rid of any excess starch, so it doesn't all stick to itself.

So there's our rice.

I'm just turning the mixture so that the spinach leaves get into the heat and wilt.

The nice thing about Indian curries is they're not usually as wet.

A lot of British curries have too much water in them or stock.

All it has is the juice from the can of the tomatoes and a little bit of cream.

And I think that makes it for a much stronger but drier curry, which I like.

And that's it.

That's my paneer curry.

One of the advantages of this curry is because that you're not trying to tenderize meat, you don't have to cook it for an hour and a half or whatever it would take to get, let's say, beef to tenderize.

But this takes as long as it takes just to heat up the spinach and peas enough to make them wilt.

I think that's lovely, I think it--it's colorful, it's fresh, it's healthy, and it's delicious.

It's traditional to serve Indian curry with flatbread, one of the oldest foods in history.

So I thought I'd just show you how to make chapatis, which are the quickest and easiest.

You need half wholemeal flour and half plain flour.

Or you need chapati flour.

So we have chapati flour here.

And then I'm going to put a tablespoon of oil in it.

And it's got about a teaspoon of salt.

And then you just want to add enough water to make a soft but not sticky dough.

And chefs often call this a shaggy dough because it does get a sort of shaggy look.

Because it needs a bit more water.

And don't worry if you don't get every single bit of flour in.

At this point, it's tempting to add a bit more water to make sure you get every last drop of flour, but it's easy to add too much water at the end.

So that's pretty well what I want.

So when you've got a ball of it, just knead it a bit.

You should knead it for about five minutes.

But what you should end up with is a nice dough that is quite soft but it's not sticky.

So when you've done that for about five minutes, if you press your thumb into it, it should start to spring back.

Do you see it's rising?

It's got some elasticity to it.

The other thing to know is that, first of all, you can knead this in a mixing machine if you've got one, using a dough hook.

Or you could make it in advance, put a damp towel over it and use it any time that day.

I mean, it keeps perfectly well.

Allow the dough to rest for ten minutes before cutting.

So I want to cut this into six pieces.

Or I suppose we could do eight pieces if you want little ones.

And then if you put a little bit of oil on the table and on your hand, and then you want to roll out your chapati very evenly.

What you don't want is lumps because if you got a mound anyway, it won't cook evenly because you'd be waiting for the thick part to bake.

The rest of it will start to burn.

Some flatbreads are made with a little bit of yeast or baking powder in them, but honestly, a classic flatbread, which this is, has no raising agent in it at all, which is why it's called a flatbread, because it's flat.

But you will see it does still have a bit of air in it because bubbles will arise as you bake it or rather, in this case, fry it.

We should now be going into a tandoori oven and be baked on the side of an oven, but we don't have one of them.

So then you put your nice thin chapati bang in the pan.

Really hot pan.

It's a dry pan because don't forget, these are oiled.

If you've got a really nice hot pan, it should be about a minute on each side.

Do you see they're beginning to puff up?

So there we've got some chapatis.

Very quick bread.

The quickest bread you can make is a chapati.

That'll please John, because he doesn't like curry without a chapati.

I'm going to keep them covered up because they'll stay nice and warm.

That's paneer curry with spinach and peas and chapatis.

Coming up, I'll show you an age-old trick that will save you bags of time... So when you've got it all done, it's all still stuck together because of that root end.

Prue, voice-over: my guest, Kelly Brook, joins me in the kitchen.

Kelly: I might need some help with that.

That's why that's on your side.

Ha!

Prue: After spending so many years cooking for friends in my kitchen, I've learned to make the cooking process as simple as possible.

And when it comes to kitchen shortcuts, you could say I know my onions.

♪ You need a chopped onion for so many dishes that I think it's worth chopping quite a lot of onions at once and then freezing it.

First of all, I'll show you how to chop them.

You take off the pointy end and take off the minimum, just enough to get the root off, because it's the root end that holds the whole thing together when you're chopping so it doesn't fly apart.

Then you split it down the middle.

Peel the outer skin off.

What I'm doing is I'm cutting little parallel lines, but I'm not going right to the very root end because I want that root end to keep everything together.

So when you've got it all done, it's all still stuck together because of that root end, and then you'd finally chop it the other way.

Many chefs will tell you that you need to put lines in that way as well, but you absolutely don't need to, because Mother Nature has made lines like that.

So we've got quite a lot of onion there.

What I then do is put it in one of these bags and then get the air out, close it up, and then put it up flat like that.

Freeze it flat first, then crunch it up, and then roll it up.

And then it fits in the door of the freezer.

I'll show you the one that I've had in my freezer now for, well, the same bag for years, but it gets chopped up every now and again.

You can see it's a little bit icy because it's frozen, but it doesn't matter because if you're going to sweat onion, the water will evaporate and you put a bit of oil in it and you have sweated onion.

So that's my hack for chopping an onion and, most important, storing chopped onion.

♪ My guest today is the most amazing woman.

She started life as a glamor model, became an actress, a TV presenter, on billboards all over the world, and voted the most beautiful woman in the world and I think also the sexiest woman in the world.

I'll take any of those compliments.

Thank you, Prue.

She is Kelly Brook.

Oh, thank you, Prue.

Welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.

Do you know what, Prue?

It's exactly what I imagined it to be-- colorful, cheery, gorgeous, just like you.

Oh, you lovely girl.

OK.

Did you know, though, that we're rather expecting you to cook for me?

I can see by how you've laid it out and all the utensils are on my side.

Now, I'm married to an Italian man that grew up in France.

So we cook a lot of Italian and French food in our kitchen.

So I think I've got something you might like.

I'm going to cook for you chicken saltimbocca.

♪ We're going to serve it with some polenta and parmesan and herbs.

I might need some help with that.

That's why that's on your side.

Ha!

I don't cook a lot of polenta, to be honest.

OK, that's fine.

That's fine.

I'll help.

So are you going to do these first?

I think I'm going to cook up the sage first in that pan, just to get the flavors going.

Prue, voice-over: Traditionally made with veal, saltimbocca is a classic Italian dish.

When you have dinner parties, is everyone just looking at you to cook all the time, Prue?

Yes.

But they're often disappointed because I do cook very simply.

Kelly: Because I'm quite intimidated cooking for you.

I'm going to just start to butterfly this chicken now.

I like to think I'm a quite good host.

It means that a lot of people don't invite you because they say that whatever they do is not going to be as good.

Do you find you don't get invited much to dinners?

People do often say, "Oh, I'd never ask you to dinner because I'd be too nervous to," which is a bit irritating because you'd quite like to be asked to dinner.

But they might just be lying and pretending that's why they don't want to ask.

They just don't want you to come over.

Yeah, they don't really want me to come over, really.

Prue, voice-over: Cover the chicken breasts and pound to tenderize the meat.

So you've just been traveling, Prue.

Where did you go?

Now, listen here, Kelly Brook, I'm interviewing you, not you interviewing me.

Oh, yeah.

Ha ha!

I think you're much more inter-- You've lived a much more colorful life than I have.

I have not.

I have not.

And what I want to know about, I had it in my head that you had been a Page 3 girl, but that turns out not to be true.

Is that right?

Well, do you know what?

I did the cover of "Playboy."

So I... Well, that's pretty good.

I was on the cover of American "Playboy" about 15 years ago.

I secretly wanted to be the center spread on "Playboy."

Come on!

Yeah... I could see this-- Prue in "Playboy."

So it was just during the time of kind of like the lads' mags.

So I started kind of, you know, basically posing for shoots for those magazines.

And I ended up auditioning for a show called "The Big Breakfast"... Yeah.

in the nineties... and I got that, and I was 18... I remember "The Big Breakfast."

and it was kind of like my big break, really, and it just kind of took me on a different path.

Right.

So we're going to do this.

And then--Oh, you're making a sandwich basically.

Pretty much a little chicken sandwich.

Close it back up.

And then we're going to wrap the Parma ham around.

Prue, voice-over: Once wrapped in Parma ham, roll the chicken breasts in seasoned flour to ensure that they get nice and crispy.

Kelly: The sage leaves have already made the oil taste quite nice.

That's lovely.

It looks quite unpromising like that, but I think once it all starts frying it up, it all looks quite delicious.

I think it'll be lovely.

Prue, voice-over: Putting a lid on traps the steam to tenderize the chicken breasts further.

These days, Kelly has swapped lingerie for wellies and life on the land.

So, Kelly, you've either been wearing wellies and stomping around a farm or you've been wearing not much at all.

Yeah, I mean, sometimes I wear not much and just wellies... especially when I'm at home.

Oh, that must be very good.

[Chuckles] So how did you sort of transition from glamor model to farmer?

I was traveling the world, and I would come home and just really crave for just a little bit of isolation to kind of squirrel myself away, be out in the garden and just puttering around in a country kitchen much like this.

And I absolutely loved it.

And then when I met my husband, he had a farm in Italy.

So he said, "Well, look, we can't run two farms."

Farms.

"We need to choose."

And I think Italy kind of came out top.

So that's kind of our future now.

We're looking at spending a lot more time in Italy on his farm, and I'm just going to be learning how to be an olive oil farmer.

Ha!

That is absolutely wonderful.

Prue, voice-over: What's more, Kelly's husband Jeremy will be joining us to taste the chicken saltimbocca.

Prue: I think these are cooked, and the reason I know they're cooked is because they feel firm.

Shall I put them on the dish?

Yes.

I'll just wrap them up.

Prue, voice-over: With the chicken cooked through and crispy, remove from the pan, leaving behind the delicious juices.

Prue: We need to now leave them to just settle, because almost all meat tastes better and is tenderer and easier to cut if you let it rest a little bit.

So it can rest while you make the sauce.

Prue, voice-over: To make the sauce, start by reducing chicken stock and wine along with those cooking juices from the chicken.

Prue: We could leave it bubbling while I make the polenta.

I can't help just taking over in the kitchen.

If you're in a rush, instant polenta is a great option.

Made from corn, polenta is an Italian store cupboard staple.

This is going to take two minutes.

Will it taste as good?

I guess if we add the cheese, it will.

Ha ha!

That's the trick for all polenta is enough cheese.

Put enough cheese in it.

Instant polenta... Yeah.

you just pour it in.

Mm-hmm.

Stir it as you go.

And it thickens.

I'm getting a chicken face steam here.

[Chuckles] It smells lovely, doesn't it?

It's nice and thick now, but I'm going to stop because I want to come and do that.

Prue, voice-over: With the liquids reduced, we can start to add the butter.

Prue: Look.

Now, that's perfect.

Do you see what's happened to all... Yeah.

The butter... it's like mayonnaise.

The butter... That's gorgeous.

The butter's not floating on the top.

The actual sauce is mostly butter.

And it's made with just reducing down the liquid.

OK.

Can I just finish this polenta?

Now, do you see?

It's just thickened up really nicely.

Add 80 grams of grated parmesan cheese.

Kelly: Wow!

That is a lot of cheese.

As far as I'm concerned, the, um... the way to make polenta delicious is lots of cheese.

We'll put a few herbs in there as well.

That does look good.

This is, um, parsley, chives and thyme, but it could be anything.

It looks really good.

Doesn't it look good.

And there's more butter here as well.

Do we add more butter?

Yeah.

Go on.

Shove it in.

Ha ha!

Just the whole thing.

Wow.

That looks incredible.

Well, you did it, not me.

Prue, voice-over: But do we get the seal of approval from the Italian in the house?

Kelly: Jeremy?

The actual Italian.

This is Prue.

I'm so happy.

Hello.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Jeremy, you've got a farm in Italy, haven't you?

Yup.

What do you grow?

So my family is there since 20 generation.

And we got olive oil, olive trees.

Some of my family got 7,000 trees.

And who picks the olives?

All my family.

So every year in October for three months, olive oil every day in the factory.

It's actually wonderful to go and just pick the olives and be with the family.

And they have parties in the olive groves and sit in picnics and drink the local wine.

Prue: We've had a really good batch of saltimbocca.

What does that mean, by the way?

It comes from the word saltare.

Saltare is "jump."

Jump.

And bocca, mouth.

So saltare, jump in your mouth.

Prue: Well, let's hope this jumps in your mouth.

Do you want to try it?

Oh, yeah.

I can't wait.

Have a little taste.

Kelly: What do you think?

Is it a jump in the mouth?

Yeah.

It's lovely.

It's good.

Mmm!

That's so good, isn't it?

Yes.

♪ What do you think?

Mmm.

How could we improve it?

I think you're a good cook.

Oh, thank you, Prue.

Prue: I think it's very good.

Kelly: He's trained me well.

Ha!

Yeah.

It's good, isn't it?

Amazing.

It is delicious.

Have another bit, Jeremy.

Well, Kelly, it's been such a pleasure having you.

Thank you, Prue.

Really... It's been amazing to be here.

And it's just, you've got the most wonderful house.

Do you want to finish it?

Yes.

I think I will.

[Laughter] ♪ Prue, voice-over: Still to come.

John and birdman Jimmi are climbing trees, looking for owls.

This is a positive again that you've got little owls.

And I'll teach you how to prepare two ingredients that I'm never without.

Anything heavy will do.

And give it a bash.

♪ John and I spend a lot of time outdoors, and it's really good to do anything we can to help the local wildlife flourish in the garden.

You may remember that we had some real luck last year with our owls, and Jimmi the birdman has been back now.

And guess what.

We're not disappointed.

Morning, John.

You all right?

I'm good, thank you.

Well, I'm looking forward to today.

Good fun.

Yeah.

It'll be nice to get round some of the owl boxes.

What a winter, eh?

So I wonder how it's affecting our bird boxes.

Well, yeah, it's certainly been a wet one over the winter, but fingers crossed, the birds are very resilient.

And it's looking very green on the farm now, so fingers crossed, I think we should have had a good year.

Shall we go and see the different owls...?

Yeah.

Let's go.

Prue, voice-over: The first stop is a box that was home to a little owl last year.

♪ Thank you.

Aw.

Look.

Jimmi: This is a positive again that you've got little owls.

Right, John, shall we get them rung?

John: I'm ready.

Prue, voice-over: Each chick is ringed and measured for the British Trust for Ornithology database, which informs us on the health of bird populations in the UK.

76 millimeters.

That's great.

There we go.

Prue, voice-over: Next it's over to our wetland meadow, where a different habitat is likely to appeal to a different species of owl.

Right, John, so you'll remember this box... I do.

from last year.

Yeah.

Isn't that beautiful?

So this is your first barn owl.

Prue, voice-over: Barn owls are spread across the UK but are mostly found in lowland in the countryside.

This is the female.

This was one you ringed earlier.

She's still got that ring on.

And we can tell it's the female as well because you can see she's got this naked bit of skin underneath there... Right.

And that's the brood patch, so that's where she'd incubate the eggs and also she'd brood the chicks when they're smaller.

Yup.

Prue, voice-over: Barn owls mate for life.

And after having such a healthy female in the box last year, chicks would be the icing on the cake.

There we are.

It's not very beautiful, are they?

Prue, voice-over: Stop being so mean, John.

Dare I say it?

I see a bit of a resemblance.

[Chuckles] Jimmi: What happens with barn owls is, is they lay the first egg, but then they don't lay the second egg for another day or two.

And they've actually found that more recently, the chicks will communicate with each other in the nest.

And the smallest one, if it shouts the loudest, will get fed.

Prue, voice-over: John, take note if you want your supper.

Jimmi: We can actually work out exactly how old round about to the nearest couple of days each of these chicks are.

And what we want is we want the seventh primary.

So it's ten, nine, eight, seven.

So that one there.

And then all I do is with my ruler, just get that on there like so, measure that.

And that is about... So let's get it right.

That's about 18 or 19 millimeters.

John: So between 17 and 21, it's 31 to 32 days.

Prue, voice-over: So we've got our very own barn owl.

It's just a month into their lives.

Jimmi has hit the mark again.

John: I can't get over how successful all your bird box positioning has been.

Jimmi: It's easy when you've got such fantastic habitat.

And, I mean, of course, it takes a little bit of knowledge and then we reap the rewards, or the owls do.

We're doing our best.

Looking good.

Top marks from me, top marks from the barn owls.

John: Ha ha!

Good.

Ha ha!

Prue: Now, all that time outdoors means that when I'm in the kitchen, I need it to be quick and easy, starting with those everyday staples.

♪ I don't think I can go 2 or 3 days without using both ginger and garlic in my cooking.

I think they're absolutely essential.

So how to deal with them?

Well, first of all, garlic comes like that.

Called a head of garlic.

And you need to open it up.

And it's maddening just trying to get your nails under there and open it up, so I get something heavy.

Anything heavy will do.

And give it a ba--bash, and then it breaks up nice and easily.

And then when you want to peel it, the trick is to take off both ends.

Give it a little crush... [Crack] just till you hear it crushing.

And then the peel will come off very easily.

Now, if you wanted to crush the garlic, you can do that or you can slice it.

And then if you wanted it crushed, chop it roughly... like that... and then stick a little salt on it and then use a buttering knife to squash it.

What the salt does is it helps to make the juices run out of the garlic, and it helps to crush them to a real paste very quickly.

So that's crushed garlic and sliced garlic.

And I now want to show you about the ginger.

One of the ways to peel ginger is to use a teaspoon and just scrape it like that.

You can even go where it's difficult you know, like, in corners.

If I'm making a ginger drink, for example, I just put slices of ginger like that, very finely sliced, because they'll impart their flavor to the drink.

If you want ginger in a salad, you usually want to be able to taste the ginger and feel the little shreds of ginger in your mouth.

You don't just want a paste.

So I would then put the slices one on top of the other and slice them into tiny ribbons.

And if you want a great ginger, the best thing is a very fine grater.

So you could just grate it like that.

And if you freeze ginger, because often you buy ginger in a great big lump and you don't want it all, I freeze it.

And then I treat it like this, and it works fine.

So there are my hacks for ginger and garlic.

We chefs are nothing without quality ingredients, and we can't get those without great producers.

Our food hero this week is a flour mill, very local, and they make every kind of sustainable, organic, interesting flour.

Hidden amongst the Cotswolds' many chocolate-box villages is a family business stretching back over a hundred years, currently run by father and son duo Paul and Bertie.

A flour mill with traditional beginnings now embracing modern methods and practices.

Man: We got into milling flour from farming back in the 1800s.

And my great-great-grandfather had the idea of building a mill in the heart of the Cotswolds to mill all locally-produced wheat, which he built in 1912.

And the rest is history.

We're the eighth generation to be the farming or milling in the area, and that's incredibly special.

Paul: We make the best flour by using the best wheat.

Prue, voice-over: The mill processes a range of wheat in order to produce numerous types of flour.

Bertie: Having that direct connection with the farmer, which is absolutely essential, and the other part in the milling process is being able to blend all of those different varieties together and mill them in a way that produces the most consistent and quality product, so that the flour can absorb the most water, is really extensible and the dough-- the end product--is perfect for what the baker needs.

Prue, voice-over: Grain lorries offload wheat, which is then processed inside the mill.

Paul: The reason all mills are tall buildings is because your stock is going up and down, up and down, up and down.

It's going through rolls, it's going through plan sifters, and it's going through purifiers.

Name of the game is extraction, and we need to get the flour out of every process of the mill.

Prue, voice-over: Chameli brought her milling skills to the Cotswolds from her homeland.

I'm enjoying the milling job.

Before that, I was in India, so I was in same profession as well.

I just want to continue my profession here.

What I found till now, the milling is the same here.

What is different is types of flour because we are making different--different products here, which we are not making in India.

Bertie: The bakers that we work with-- often they're small artisan bakeries from all around the country-- are looking to experiment with different flavors, different textures, different smells.

So that's meant that we've had to mill lots of different types of grains.

Prue, voice-over: And the family are working to ensure the longevity of the soil they rely on.

Bertie: Regenerative farming and regenerative agriculture is a way of farming that produces food in a way that is most beneficial to our soils, to biodiversity, to water, and to sequestering carbon.

And it's a balance between producing enough food and yet improving or regenerating our soil fertility.

Prue, voice-over: So it looks like our bakers are in safe hands and can look forward to working with a range of flours for years to come.

♪ Next, John and I work on a dish fit for any occasion, a dish I have been making for decades.

Prue: I think it's the perfect Saturday lunch.

Good for grandchildren.

I like it warm best, but if it's fresh, cold is fine.

Prue, voice-over: Cooking dishes to share is immensely satisfying, and you can't beat the simple classics when it comes to satisfying hungry hordes.

So I've got John back in the kitchen with me, and we're going to make quiche.

I like a quiche if it's got a biscuity bottom.

I don't like those-- Soggy bottoms.

Gelatinous bottoms.

Prue: What I like is quiche Lorraine, which is an absolute classic.

It's just onion, bacon and cheese.

What could be better than that?

♪ Prue: To make the pastry... add the flour, a pinch of salt, and the chopped butter to a bowl.

You can just do all this in a food processor, but this is how you do it by hand.

Get your hands floury just like that first.

OK.

OK.

Get all the bits of butter floury.

OK.

And then what you do is, it's called rubbing in.

But you squish the butter with your thumbs... OK.

and then drop it again.

OK.

Just squish a bit and drop it, not so much that it'll stick to your fingers.

Yeah, well, so far, so good.

And you just keep doing this.

And the idea is, which I'm not quite sure is whether it's true or not, but you're meant to get some air into it, so you do it from a height.

You need proper little bits of butter, because that's what makes the pastry flaky and crisp.

And then if you give the bowl a shake, like that, the biggest lumps will come to the top.

You've done this before, haven't you?

I have done it before, but I'm not doing it as fast as you, so I'm going to have to speed up.

It's a competition.

What you want to do is we're going to add the egg... Right.

and a bit of water.

So you've got that little thing.

This little thing.

Yeah.

Put the egg in there.

Here?

No, no.

Come on, you idiot.

Checking.

Break the egg in there or "put it in"?

Ha ha!

Break the egg into the bowl... That's better.

and then put a tablespoon of water in.

Prue, voice-over: Next, whisk the eggs with the water, pour the mixture into the bowl and start to bring the pastry together.

Can I not do it like cement and make a sort of doughnut and then just keep folding it in?

No.

You do what you're told.

Come on.

Do that.

OK.

And then you use a knife.

Why can't I do it my way?

Because I'm teaching you the classic way.

You can start getting imaginative later.

And then you use your hand to bring it all together.

Then you make it into a ball.

Prue, voice-over: Once the pastry is formed, it's ready to rest in the freezer.

Once chilled, the pastry should be firm but malleable and ready to work with.

Which would you like?

Ha ha.

Oh, a big one.

There we are.

A little bit of flour on the rolling pin to stop it sticking.

What you have to do as you roll out a pastry is keep making sure that it's not sticking to the surface, so you have to keep budging it around.

Then start to roll it.

Little, short jabs are the easiest but always keeping it round.

Roll the pastry out until large enough to overhang the tin, then use your rolling pin to lower the pastry.

What you're going to do now is move it in like that... OK.

so that it goes right down to the edge.

Can I use my thumb to... Yeah.

lead it in?

It's really important to get the pastry right into the corners here, because you don't want those corners to be too thick, but you do want it to go right to the edge.

Use your rolling pin to trim off excess pastry before chilling the quiche base for 30 minutes in the fridge.

[Buzzing] How to stop a soggy bottom.

The main thing is to bake the pastry before you put the filling in, because obviously, if you put a wet filling into that, it's going to keep the whole pastry wet and it will not bake properly through.

So it needs to be what are called blind beans because this is called baking blind.

What have I got here?

Lentils, black beans, red beans and rice.

It doesn't seem to be very much.

I would just put more in.

Well, I don't want to make it so dense that the heat won't get through.

Oh.

But that'll be all right.

As long as it's enough to stop it rising.

Prue, voice-over: Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

While that's happening, let's make the fillings.

I'm going to do a classic quiche Lorraine, which is sweated onion, chopped up onion, cooked very gently in butter with chopped up bacon.

You could use ham, but bacon is lovely.

And then I'm going to make a custard to go in it.

And John is going to do the same.

He's going to make a custard, but his middle is roasted vegetables.

The filling consists of any vegetables you like.

What we've got here is aubergines, tomatoes, courgettes, onions.

You put a whole lot of parsley in there.

And that's going to be your filling with the custard.

To make the custard, whisk three medium eggs, 150 mils of milk, and 150 mils of single cream... making sure to season.

Do you ever use finer ground pepper?

Because I find these things get stuck in my throat.

I'll tell you what, if it's wet, it doesn't stick in your throat so much.

If it's, you know, if you grind it on the top, I notice you start choking.

Heh!

I mean, it renders me speechless... Yes.

But if I put it into the mixture, you don't have a problem.

You don't do it deliberately, do you?

No, of course not.

Now, what we'll do is when the, um... Yours is over there.

I know.

I'm doing this-- Sorry--as mine.

It's mine.

Yeah.

But don't mix the two together yet.

When the pastry is baked, we'll then start filling it.

Because these vegetables have quite a lot of juice in them, I'm going to put a tablespoon of flour into them, and it will just make the vegetables a little less likely to make the whole thing too wet.

Otherwise, it's the same method entirely.

Prue, voice-over: When the pastry has been in the oven for 20 minutes, remove the blind beans and pop the pastry back in the oven to continue cooking.

Prue: So we'll give it another ten minutes and then the pastry will be properly baked underneath and you won't get your soggy bottom.

Lovely.

Good.

Proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

The moment of truth.

How has that pastry done?

So, you see, we have a little bit of a problem here.

Ideally, I should have baked it a little bit longer with the beans.

Anyway, it doesn't matter because it'll make a perfect quiche.

Prue, voice-over: In go the fillings.

John: I quite like this aspect.

I like being neat.

So... I know.

You like being neat, and I'm the one who's really quite untidy.

So I'm putting the onion and bacon in here, which has been sweated slowly in butter, so it's delicious.

I could mix it up with the custard and pour the whole lot in together.

But I think if you want to have the goodies, the bits of bacon spread evenly, it's easier to put the filling in first, like that.

John: I reckon that looks... Pretty perfect.

pretty good.

What do I do now?

You need to put as much of your custard as you want to fill it up, and I'm going to do the same.

Do you want some cheese on top of yours?

I think that's enough, darling.

Is it?

Nothing in moderation is my motto.

I expect you'd like me to do it all in a pretty pattern.

Yes.

Ha ha!

Now, the nice thing about having a baking sheet like this is that I can slide it off into the oven.

Oh.

[Chuckles] Well, you weren't looking, so I thought, "Right.

I can..." I guess you opted to put a few more on.

"put a few more on."

Prue, voice-over: Bake at 130 degrees until the custard is just set.

I'm looking forward to eating mine.

Come on.

In you go.

The bake should take about 30 minutes in the oven until they have some color on the top, but don't let them get too brown.

I think it's the perfect Saturday lunch.

Good for grandchildren.

Good for grandchildren, good for absolutely anybody.

It's good for picnics, good for eating cold.

I like it warm best, but if it's fresh, cold is fine.

A lot of quiches seem to be very bland when you eat them.

How do you get that, you know, really good-- I mean, if I want bacon, I want to taste the bacon.

Well, A--get good bacon is the first thing, and the other, lots of it.

I mean, we probably have slightly too much veg here, but that's all really good fresh veg, and there's lots of it, so it's bound to have a good flavor.

Also, you need a bit of salt and pepper.

Always helps.

Could you put prosciutto in it, which...?

Yeah, you can put anything in it.

If I'm going to make one, I'm going to put... [Pro-choot-oh] prosciutto in it.

[Prahs-shoot-oh] Prosciutto.

[Prahs-shoot-oh] Both: Prosciutto.

Good.

♪ Well, our quiches are cooked.

They look good to me.

Shall we taste them?

Now, you can't claim that as yours.

That's mine.

Ha ha!

All right?

You quite sure you didn't make them both?

No.

Well, we'll start with mine, then.

OK.

This is the classic quiche Lorraine.

Looks pretty good.

Mm.

When am I allowed to taste this?

You're allowed to taste it right now.

Am I?

OK.

Right.

Well, it's not flopping.

Not flopping.

Yes.

Good.

I think you've nailed it.

Is that the word?

You think after 50 years of making quiche Lorraine, I've finally got it.

That's got a really nice bottom.

The point about a good quiche is that there should be-- well, a quiche Lorraine-- there should be lots of custard, and it shouldn't be bubbly or overbaked.

You know how a baked custard can get holes in it.

It must be smooth like that.

Delish.

Now let's see about yours, then.

OK.

Looks good, doesn't it?

Oh, fantastic.

[Both chuckle] I have to do this with a fork.

It's too heavy to-- Do you know that is so delicious?

You have got the biggest mouth I have ever seen on anyone.

I mean, you just put in a mouthful that most people would take four mouthfuls for.

Don't you think that tastes great?

I do.

You can taste the peppers and the aubergines and tomatoes and everything.

That's really good.

Congratulations.

I think for a first time for pastry, that is really nice and short.

It's not tough.

It's buttery.

It's really good.

So we have a classic quiche Lorraine and a roasted vegetable quiche.

And though we says it ourselves, they're delicious.

Do I get a sticker?

You get a sticker.

Oh, good.

[Chuckles] ♪