[theme music] [engine revving] 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 happen to be some of the finest chefs in the entire world.

[laughing] Butter.

Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

Woo hoo!

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My incredible adventure continues across the north of England with my mate and traveling companion for this leg of the journey, the phenomenal chef Lisa Allen.

We've already visited my home county of Yorkshire, and now it's Lisa's turn to show me her stomping grounds.

So we've left my neck of the woods and now in your home turf.

- Absolutely.

Lancashire.

Yeah.

So whereabouts have you ventured in Lancashire before?

- Morecambe.

- Yeah, Morecambe.

- Blackpool.

- Yeah, Morecambe.

Blackpool.

We used to look after a donkey called Bimbo.

The season finished in Blackpool beach.

They used to rehouse or rehome the donkeys.

Oh, right.

JAMES MARTIN: And we used to love it so much that we ended up keeping it after, obviously, the donkey was knackered because too many people with rather large backsides sat on poor Bimbo over the years.

LISA ALLEN: Awww.

So she retired to Yorkshire-- - All right.

- Where we looked after it.

Excellent.

JAMES MARTIN: Bimbo.

Bimbo.

Bimbo the donkey.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm going to leave the jokes about Yorkshire bimbos to your imagination.

[upbeat music] Lancashire sits on the west coast of northern England, with the Irish Sea lapping at its shores and the vast county of Yorkshire sitting proudly to the east.

Lisa's taking me to Clitheroe, a small town in the Ribble Valley, where I'm hoping to find some great tucker.

So it's roundabout.

You're gonna go straight on again.

So you're my sat nav, you see.

In these parts, this is like an episode of Car Share.

Up north, we don't have-- don't have sat navs up north.

From here.

Yeah, exactly.

Straight on, yeah.

LISA ALLEN: Straight on, yeah.

- Yeah.

We might get there in about three hours.

I don't know with me driving.

You're the superstar racing driver.

LISA ALLEN: Yeah.

Giving me secrets out.

The race Mini driver.

Exactly.

You still won't let me drive though, will you?

You can drive if you want.

It's fine with me.

I'm just-- I won't be in the passenger seat.

♪ ♪ So this is Clitheroe, is it?

LISA ALLEN: This is Clitheroe, yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: This is where you were brought up then, is it?

LISA ALLEN: No, I was actually brought up around Morecambe.

Were you?

LISA ALLEN: Morecambe is my real town.

Oh, Morecambe?

LISA ALLEN: Morecambe girl.

See, there's a lot I'm learning about you, you see.

Just two days, I know more about you than I did in the last 15 years.

So I've lived in Clitheroe now for about 13 years.

You need to sort out your potholes, though.

Yeah.

What's that chippy like?

Is it any good?

- It's all right, actually.

Is it-- is it really?

There's another one about there.

Is it as good as Whitby fish?

No.

It's not.

- Probably.

- OK.

- I don't know, actually.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Think it's best we change the subject.

Just as well.

We've arrived at our destination.

This is Holmes Mill, a former textile mill dating back to the early 19th century, which is now a vibrant celebration of Lancashire food and drink featuring a brewery, bar, and food hall, which is where Lisa's taken me.

JAMES MARTIN: Well, this is not a bad place, is it?

No.

Absolutely.

It's like a chef's toy shop, isn't it, really?

And local to you.

Local to me.

We're very spoiled as well.

So fantastic.

All right, so you go off and do your thing and find some bits and pieces for me, and I'll have a look around.

- Absolutely.

I'll see you outside in a bit.

- See you in a bit.

All right.

It's magical.

[bright music] Just look at this food.

Great meats, beautiful cheeses.

It really is a celebration of great ingredients.

I mean, there's just so, so much.

You can really get a bit of everything, but obviously, you can't come to this neck of the woods without talking about two of the local specialties from around here as well.

We've got Eccles cakes, and we've got Chorley cakes.

These are usually served with cheese.

And then this is where it gets political, you see, because you've got parkin.

Now, my granny used to make-- it was the finest cake she ever made.

And it was served always, always a bonfire night, and it was called parkin.

It's not parking a car.

Parkin is a cake.

Now, I was taught that it came from Yorkshire.

They've nicked it.

[quirky music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): But thankfully, there is still some Yorkshire grub on display.

Well, we'll just turn that around.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Or maybe not.

LISA ALLEN: Well, James is looking for me to get him some meat or fish to cook with.

But look at this.

It's absolutely fantastic.

I mean, some great meat here.

Some pork, rare breed.

You can see how dry the skin is.

50-day aged beef in there.

We're very spoiled for choice, but I think that maybe we should cook with fish.

♪ ♪ Wow, look at this fish.

It's amazing.

Hello.

How are you?

- Good.

And you?

Yeah, very good, thanks.

Could I take one of the John Dorys, please?

Yeah.

John Dory's an absolutely fantastic fish, probably one of my favorites.

Bang in season at the minute.

I think James will really enjoy cooking with it.

Thank you very much.

- Yeah, you're welcome.

Cheers.

He's also asked me to get some ingredients for a dressing, English mustard.

Brilliant.

Ahh, a local rapeseed oil.

Bonus.

♪ ♪ Lemon's the last thing I need.

Let's see what he's going to do with this lovely lot.

♪ ♪ Just look at these, fresh fennel.

And when you get fennel like this, how it should be with the fronds on it as well, you shouldn't cut fennel like this.

It shouldn't be like that.

It certainly shouldn't be wrapped in plastic and vacuum sealed from an inch of its life.

It's a beautiful, beautiful veg, this.

So I'm going to have a couple of these.

And then other things that I couldn't resist, nice fresh cucumber.

If you've ever tried growing your own stuff at home, this is probably one of the easiest things if you don't get attacked by aphids and bits and pieces, but lovely fresh cucumber.

Nice tomatoes.

But in amongst all that, you've got these little fellas over here, Padrón peppers, that Russian roulette of peppers.

1 in 6, 1 in 10 are nice and spicy.

And together with this, kohlrabi, I've tried to grow these at home, really, and I made the big mistake of not harvesting them when they look like this.

I left them for a couple more weeks, and they turned out like a rugby ball.

But these are amazing.

Great raw in salads.

[upbeat music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Right.

That's everything we need, and as we're both pretty hungry, it's time for Lisa and I to turn those ingredients into a plate of something special.

John Dory, it's a chef's fish, wouldn't you say?

Oh, beautiful fish.

It really is.

It is fantastic, this fish, but probably the hardest fish to fillet.

Hence, she's given me it.

But I'm not going to fillet it.

I thought we'd basically char-grill it on our little disposable barbecue.

I'm going to fill it with some shrimp butter, because you've got to cook-- Oh, amazing.

I mean, you know I like my butter.

- Absolutely.

- And I like my shrimps.

And I thought we'd do a wonderful little salad.

So-- LISA ALLEN: OK.

You can do a nice little dressing with whatever you want.

Fill your boots.

Meanwhile, I'm going to tackle this fella over here.

Perfect.

OK.

Because this, when you look at it, not only does it look a fantastic fish, but when you open its mouth, it's got a face that its mother only loves.

LISA ALLEN: What a big mouth that is.

Look at that.

But it is.

Look at that in there.

LISA ALLEN: Amazing.

Look at that.

LISA ALLEN: Ugh.

Very similar to sort of our director occasionally on this trip, but-- but you've got this beautiful, beautiful fish.

Now, you've gotta be quite careful with it, particularly its spines.

So using a pair of scissors, we remove the little fins, really, for these.

So take your time.

Now you're going to tell me what's going on this dressing.

What are you going on?

- Absolutely.

So I've got a little bit of whole grain mustard, British whole grain mustard, some vinegar, and some local rapeseed oil.

JAMES MARTIN: So we just removed the little bits here.

Now, you can take the head off if you want, but there's an amazing amount flesh, this bit in here, those lovely little cheeks.

Those cheeks are like-- like-- like a hamster cheek as they're munching away.

They've got amazing nugget of meat.

And what we're going to do is just take our bit of potted shrimp, literally the entire lot, and stuff it in the cavity in there.

LISA ALLEN: That's amazing.

- All right.

Like that?

- Beautiful.

We might use a little bit of dill, do you reckon?

Bit of herb in there.

A bit of-- Absolutely.

Locally grown fennel.

We'll just grab a few bits of that.

That's gonna go in, and just stuff that in the cavity.

LISA ALLEN: Smoky over there.

It's gonna get a lot worse in a minute.

Black pepper.

Nice.

Bit of salt over the top.

And then a little bit of oil.

Just as well like that.

And just rub over the fish.

And then carefully stick it on the barbie, whole thing straight on.

Beautiful.

Right.

This goes out of the way.

All right.

Now it's up to you, Chef, how we prepare the next bit, which is the salad.

Do you want it sliced?

LISA ALLEN: I think we should thinly slice it.

I think you should thinly slice it.

I think what I'm gonna do-- You gonna sit down?

No, no.

Off you go.

Fill your boots.

I'm going.

I'm going.

What I'm gonna do is just take the shrimp, and I'm gonna put these in here.

And we're just going to melt these nicely.

Now, potted shrimps, if you wanna do them at home, they're done with a little bit of clarified butter.

Obviously, these amazing shrimps.

A little bit of mace as well, a bit of nutmeg if you wanted to.

And just melt these down and then just pop them up.

Simple as that.

[chopping] I'm doing as I'm told, me.

No, no you're-- no.

What do you want the cucumber doing?

LISA ALLEN: Go on, slice her up.

Do you want it wedges?

What do you want it?

I think slice it.

Go on.

Do you want it wedges?

Go on wedges then.

I'm going for the onion.

I'm watching.

JAMES MARTIN: Sharp that knife, innit?

Yeah, it's lovely.

There might be another thing I'm gonna take.

JAMES MARTIN: No, you're not nicking my knife at all.

Bit of cucumber.

OK.

We'll put them in little lines on there.

Mmm.

It's amazing, that.

JAMES MARTIN: A few bits of that.

LISA ALLEN: Yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

What do you want to do with the kohlrabi?

Beautiful raw.

But especially when you've got a really vibrant dressing, nice and thin.

It's quite crispy.

Adds a nice crunch to it.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

Little bit of fennel.

LISA ALLEN: Some nice tomatoes.

JAMES MARTIN: Fennel is, of course, amazing cooked, but it's delicious raw in salads, but superb.

So touch of fennel.

All right.

Like that.

Butter's melting away nicely.

LISA ALLEN: There's some chives.

Right, I think this is about ready to turn over.

Do you want to grab the head end and I'll grab the back end?

OK.

Which way are we going to flip?

[laughs] You're the Michelin star chef.

You can tell me which way to flip.

That way.

All right, let me just get this bit.

LISA ALLEN: You got it?

JAMES MARTIN: Hold on.

Which way?

This way?

LISA ALLEN: Yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: To me?

Yeah.

To you.

- Go for it.

- To you.

- Ah.

- Look at that.

Mm.

Mmm!

Looks all right, doesn't it?

LISA ALLEN: Yeah, it's beautiful.

JAMES MARTIN: So this is a few minutes away.

So I'm going to leave you to do the salad, if that's all right.

- Definitely.

- Nice little line.

I can do that.

I'll try my best for you anyway.

Off you go.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ Do you want a bit of pepper?

Yes, please.

Put it on there.

JAMES MARTIN: Oh.

LISA ALLEN: Yeah, go on.

Excellent.

♪ ♪ All right.

I'm going to place the-- mixed all together with the dressing.

Yeah.

LISA ALLEN: Nicely seasoned.

And then I'm just going to place a lovely line.

See, look at the delicate hands.

Look at that.

LISA ALLEN: On the top there.

Save room for my fish.

[laughs] [laughter] No, what are you doing to me?

It's a big bit of fish, look.

[laughter] ♪ ♪ Look at that.

A few herbs on the top.

Boom.

Happy with that?

I am, yeah.

All right.

How are we going to get this fish off?

Right, ready?

You got it?

JAMES MARTIN: You bring the plate.

There we go.

Look at that.

LISA ALLEN: Beautiful.

JAMES MARTIN: Do you want to dress it with a bit of stuff?

Yeah, a bit of veg on there.

Do you want it on there, or did you wanna-- I'll put a little bit on there.

JAMES MARTIN: You just-- yeah.

LISA ALLEN: There you go.

And then this is a little bit of me.

A little bit extra.

Because you can't have a bit of this, Morecambe Bay shrimp butter.

Ooh.

You're looking at me going, less is more, aren't you?

I can tell it.

I can feel what you're saying.

See?

LISA ALLEN: Delicious.

JAMES MARTIN: Is that right?

LISA ALLEN: Absolutely.

JAMES MARTIN: There you go.

John Dory with Morecambe Bay shrimp butter and a Michelin star salad.

[applause] Good.

With an audience.

[laughter] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Thank you, Clitheroe.

That's a James and Lisa original.

We hope you like it.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ I've sent Lisa off to explore a nearby dairy farm, where the cattle are a little bit different to the norm.

Um, has anybody seen my car?

Ah-ha!

Yes, I stole the Mini!

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And before you ask, yes, she is insured.

Which is just as well, as she's on her way to Carron Lodge, where Adrian Rhodes and his family have invested in their very own herd of buffalo in order to make some stunning cheeses.

LISA ALLEN: I've arrived here at Carron Lodge and I'm off to meet Stephen.

He's going to be milking these ladies, and hopefully, I get to try a bit of cheese, as well.

[mid-tempo music] ♪ ♪ Hi, Steve.

How are you?

I'm very well.

I've never been in a milking parlor before, actually.

It looks amazing.

It does, yeah.

We don't usually see many of these in a milking parlor.

LISA ALLEN: No, absolutely not.

People originate buffalo cheese with mozzarella.

But what you guys are doing here is something quite interesting.

You're actually doing a hard cheese, aren't you?

Yeah.

They are, yeah.

And a couple of different varieties of cheese, as well.

STEVE: Right, the blue and the cheddar.

LISA ALLEN: Excellent.

So do you just use the milk for making cheese or do you kind of sell out the milk, as well?

STEVE: No, it's just purely kept here to make cheese.

Yeah, they don't sell them out.

A new calved one will give 15 liters a day-- Right, OK.

--if you're lucky.

But it is almost twice the butterfat content of a dairy cow, so you can actually get more cheese per liter out of the milk.

Oh, OK, interesting.

You don't realize it's all so technical after, like, back in the old days, where they were just kind of milking with the udders.

I wouldn't like to milk these by hand.

No.

I don't think I'd like to milk them, either.

This one's actually finished.

I'll now press the button.

It's flashing to say it's finished.

LISA ALLEN: Oh, OK.

STEVE: And the unit will take off itself.

Well, it's been really nice to meet you, Stephen.

Thank you very much.

It looks like you've got a lot of busy customers here, so I'm going to go off and try some of the cheese.

But thanks again.

It was lovely to meet you.

OK, yeah.

Thank you very much.

[soft guitar music] Come on, girls.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hi, Adrian.

Thank you very much for having me.

I've just been in the milking parlor.

It's amazing.

It was quite an experience.

Yeah?

No, it's a pleasure to have your company.

Thanks.

But I'm looking forward to trying these cheeses.

Can you tell me a little bit about the history of the place, really?

ADRIAN RHODES: We brought the animals in so that we've got our own milk for our own production on-site.

And we wanted to make some unique, interesting cheese, rather than make the mass-produced mozzarella, which everyone sort of associates buffalo milk with.

We decided initially to make a cheddar style.

Could I persuade you to try a sample?

Absolutely.

Yes, that's what I've been waiting for.

OK.

Here we go.

It's mold-rounded cheese, but it's a 10-month-old cheddar style.

So if you could try a little sample on there.

Whoops.

Oh, you can smell.

It's beautiful.

And I'll indulge myself, as well.

Mm.

They're incredible flavor, lovely.

ADRIAN RHODES: So then we move on to the Shipston Blue.

This is a much more moist and creamy cheese.

So again, can I persuade you to try a sample?

Absolutely, yeah.

I must admit, I'm a bit partial to blue cheese.

ADRIAN RHODES: OK.

Wow, the smell is incredible.

Mm, so creamy, ADRIAN RHODES: Mm-hmm So creamy, packed full of flavor.

Fantastic, that's amazing.

I think we've got a few friends behind us.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, they're-- they're relatively harmless.

They're just inquisitive animals.

LISA ALLEN: How many buffalo do you currently have?

ADRIAN RHODES: We've currently got 24 females in the herd.

And then we've got about seven or eight males.

They have personalities and characters of their own.

The one thing we have to be a little bit careful with in Lancashire being a wet county is they do wallow.

They'll make a puddle, they'll roll over in the mud.

And that's a natural mechanism they use for keeping their body temperatures low.

Oh, wow.

So you can set off in a field like this with a small puddle, and within a week, you can end up with a big pond.

So we have to be a little bit careful.

LISA ALLEN: A ready-made swimming pool?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you very much for having me, Adrian.

This place is amazing.

It makes me very proud to be from Lancashire, and I'm definitely going to try and take some of this with me.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): That cheese sounds pretty good, and I know just the thing to serve alongside it.

Now, this is a great classic recipe from up north Lancashire way-- Eccles cakes and Blackburn cakes.

I'm going to get on to the filling of it in a minute, but it's all about the pastry for this one.

So I've got some plain flour here.

We want a pinch of salt.

And then you take some cold butter, just roll it in the flour to stop it sticking to your hands.

And then grate this.

Plenty of butter in here, and that's where you get this flakiness to the classic Eccles cake.

Now I'm going to keep the remaining butter and just pop it into our pan to melt this for our filling.

But back onto our pastry.

Try not to get your hand in there because otherwise, it melts the butter.

The best way to do that is just to mix it together using a spatula just to coat the butter in the flour.

And then we can combine this together with just some cold water.

Then we can get our hands in and start to bring this together to a dough.

Now it should basically leave the sides of the bowl clean, which that is.

And then once you've got to that stage, pop it back in the fridge just to set nicely.

On with the filling.

Now classically, the filling varies.

So you can either put currants or sultanas or a mixture of the two with butter and with sugar.

I'm going to use some brown sugar and some white sugar for this.

You can either use one or the other.

It's entirely up to you, or both, like I'm doing.

So you've just got the mixture of the fruit, the butter, and the sugar.

Really nothing else.

Now, this is the Eccles part of it.

But there is another one, Blackburn cakes, and they're done with stewed apples.

Now, I've got here some stewed Bramley apples.

A tiny bit of sugar, not too much.

This is why it lends itself really well, I think, this one, to go with cheese.

And if you use a combination of the two fillings, it's even better.

So grab your pastry out.

We can then roll this out.

[soft guitar music] ♪ ♪ Once you've got the pastry nice and thin, we can then get just a little bit of egg wash.

And I use egg whites for this, really.

And then get yourself a cutter and cut out the disks.

♪ ♪ And then with your filling-- I'll make the Eccles cakes first-- a bit of the filling in the center.

A bit of water-- rather than use egg white at this point, use a bit of water.

And then what you want to do is bring this together.

So you fold this over so it all basically comes together like a little parcel.

Turn it over, press it down, and then put it on your tray.

Leave a little space in between each one.

And this is where different recipes will vary.

I've seen some with different types of fruit.

I've seen some with spices in, as well-- ginger, nutmeg, all that kind of stuff.

But I actually just like the plain ones.

Simple, plain flavors.

Now, you've got to go a little bit further up north for these ones, and Blackburn.

Not too much sugar in these apples.

You want that sharpness, remember, because you've got a lot of flavor from the sugar that you're going to put on as well, if you wanted to.

A bit of water.

And then likewise, bring this together as a little parcel.

And then just to finish these off, rather than leave them plain, I actually use a little bit of egg white over the top.

The egg white does two things.

It gets a little bit of color on it, but it also adds a glue for the bit of sugar that's going to go on top.

And then all you do now is cook these in a hot oven for about 15 minutes.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ Now, I had to use this because it was a present from my mom-- Stutter Cheesemonger at the Two Sneezing Cats.

And the same time she gave me it, she gave me a bill for 800 quid, which was quite nice.

Anyway, look at these, look at these!

How good do they look?

And then finally, we've got our chunks of cheese.

And this is what's great with Eccles cakes or Blackburn cakes.

You can serve it with a chunk of cheese.

Nice piece of that.

And then you lift off your cakes.

Let's have a few of these with it.

See, what I like about this, it's kind of like old and new, isn't it, really?

You've got the Eccles cakes, the Blackburn cakes, the old school, together with kind of the new kid on the block, really-- the buffalo milk cheese.

I bet you didn't have that when that cheesemonger was still around.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Feast your eyes on me cakes, the perfect partner for Lancashire cheese.

[funky music] ♪ ♪ Today I'm in Lancashire with my mate, Lisa Allen, and the battle of the shires continues.

JAMES MARTIN: They've nicked it.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): But now I'm on my way to see Lisa in action at her Michelin-starred restaurant, Northcote, where she's promised me some top-class grub.

Lisa's had to go back to work, so I'm going to go see her now to taste some of her food, because Northcote is somewhat of an icon, a titan of the food scene of Lancashire.

Nigel Haworth was at the helm for many, many years and put this place on the culinary map with a Michelin star.

And more recently, Lisa's taken over.

It's a huge responsibility for her, but words cannot describe how good a cook that girl is.

She's just fabulous.

So it'll be interesting to see what this place looks like, because it's been about eight years since I've been here.

I can't wait for this.

[gentle music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): The recently refurbished Northcote is a 19th-century beauty.

From its plush interiors to the sprawling grounds, which include a kitchen garden, this is Lancashire at its best.

Lisa's been behind the hobs here for 15 years and has constantly brought seasonal ingredients to life with locally inspired recipes.

So what's on the menu today?

JAMES MARTIN: That's amazing.

Already, I can see so much has changed.

The new restaurant is just incredible.

It's beautiful, and it overlooks the gorgeous veg garden, and a lot of that produce they use for their menus.

Very much seasonal stuff.

You've got the Jersey Royal potatoes.

You've got literally the honey from 20 feet away, the garden herbs, and wild garlic.

Of course, it's foraged all around this area.

Hello.

Hello.

That looks a bit fancy.

LISA ALLEN: [laughs] - That looks a bit fancy.

- Only for you.

Only for you.

JAMES MARTIN: Beautiful plate of food.

So, what is it?

So you've got a local goat, which is actually reared in Skipton, so the Yorkshire boundaries.

JAMES MARTIN: Right, OK We've got white curry.

Summer pods, which are broad beans and peas from our garden.

And then it's finished with sweet cicely and sweet cicely oil.

JAMES MARTIN: What have we got in here, then?

What is this?

LISA ALLEN: So this is-- basically, you've got the loin of goat.

And then the bellies that are off to the side of the loin of the goat, what we do is we slow cook them down, and then we dice them up and put them back in their own juices, and then it's encrusted.

So it's like a croquette, really-- like a braised croquette.

- OK.

The last time I had goat was horrific.

Oh.

JAMES MARTIN: It was in India.

It was in India.

[laughter] - I might just be running away.

No, no.

No, you won't No, you won't.

No.

Different level of cooking ability, I think.

So you treat it like lamb, do you?

Yeah, yeah.

Exactly, yeah.

And I'd say it's quite like lamb, but a little bit more gamier than lamb.

See, this is what I love about confident cooks.

They just know.

They know it's good, because they sit back and go-- [laughs] Don't need to say anything.

Nothing at all.

That's a cracking dish, isn't it?

It's tasty, yeah.

What have you cooked this onion in?

LISA ALLEN: Goat fat.

That's the way forward, isn't it, really?

Absolutely.

The taste is incredible.

It's not curry sauce as people would know it with the chips.

No.

Yeah.

It's nothing like it.

No, but do you know what I mean?

- No, absolutely.

- It's not like that.

It's mellow.

- Yeah.

It's not strong.

But if you hadn't said it, you'd be searching for the flavor.

- Yeah, absolutely.

JAMES MARTIN: You know what I mean?

It's quite mild.

I'm going to raise a glass to you.

That is an amazing, an amazing dish.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN: You're not bad at this, are you?

I can relax now.

JAMES MARTIN: You enjoying your new space and your new kitchen?

I suppose the garden is like an ultimate playpen for you.

Oh, yeah, I love it.

I think for me to be here quite a while now, but I've seen it change dramatically.

Well, I know you've got a busy day ahead in the kitchen, but I'm going to catch you later in the pub.

Is that all right?

- Definitely.

JAMES MARTIN: Thank you very much.

- See you after service.

- See you service.

I'll finish that off.

Maybe not.

This is truly a fantastic dish.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): That was ace.

But I'm not cooking anything nearly as fancy.

However, it is a classic-- a Lancashire hotpot.

So this is the perfect dish to do well away from Lisa-- in fact, well away from Lancashire.

Because I'm a Yorkshireman, and I shouldn't really be doing hotpot, but this is a fantastic dish.

The first thing we're going to do is slice the onions and get them cooking first of all, because we don't want to color them.

A little bit of butter in the pan.

Just sweat the onions down.

Now, I've got here a piece of lamb.

Now, this is a boned-out shoulder.

It's the perfect cut of meat for this.

And what you do need with a piece of meat like this is a combination of fat to meat, but in the right combination, the right percentage.

So if there's anything that's a bit too fatty, which is that bit, just take that out.

So that's going to go straight into our pan with our onions.

Now, unlike a beef stew, where we'd have to brown this, we don't really do this with a hotpot, because this is classed as a white stew.

But then another part of lamb hotpot which is crucial is the kidneys.

Now, not everybody's cup of tea, kidneys, but they're actually really easy to prepare.

If you cut them in half, you've got a little membrane that sits inside it.

And then remove that little membrane out.

By removing this, they cook nice and tender.

Now, they are quite essential in terms of flavor.

Any hotpot that I've had always had kidneys in it.

But what we do need to do is thicken it up, and to do that, we turn our attention to flour.

Now, when you're using this, you want just enough, a good tablespoon, and then give this a quick mix-up.

And then we can add our flavorings into this.

I've got some rosemary.

And then the liquid from this comes in the form of two ingredients now.

We've got some stock.

This is a bit of chicken stock or beef stock, or a combination of the two.

But the great additional flavor, which I think goes brilliantly with the lamb, is a bit of Worcestershire sauce-- and I mean a bit, about a third of a bottle.

What this gives you is like a umami flavor, which chefs call that.

They love that word, "umami flavor."

It's really this unique taste in your mouth.

This just gently cooks now for about an hour and a half, and what you end up with is what I've got in this pan over here, this sort of lamb stew.

Now, you can see what the flour has done.

It's started to thicken it up a little bit.

It's not too dark, which you get that by not coloring the meat too much.

But the kidney's nicely cooked.

And then to finish this off, of course, we just use a little mandoline and slice the potatoes nice and thin.

[pleasant guitar music] ♪ ♪ What you want to do with this is just build this up, just to give you a flat surface.

And then the final bit, you got your nice sliced potatoes, and then overlap them.

I guarantee you, at some point when Lisa sees this show, she'll be texting me, giving me a load of grief that I've done it wrong.

I'll ignore that bit.

And then, just to finish this off, we grab a bit more butter over the top No need to season this, because you've already done that anyway.

Set the oven about 350, about 170, something like that.

And you want to cook this for a further 35, 45 minutes to cook the potatoes.

Now I've got one that's been cooking away nicely, so we can lift this out.

Look at this.

But we're not quite finished yet.

I like these crispy bits, don't get me wrong.

But you want it-- coat it in all that lovely juice.

And for that, you press the potatoes down until they sit in the liquor.

So you get the crispy potatoes, but now they go slightly soggy.

Take this off your tray.

But that is nearly ready to serve.

And this is the important bit, really.

It's by seasoning this before you put the potatoes on it.

Because once you get to this stage, there's very little else you can do other than serve it.

You don't need anything else to serve it with.

And you just scoop this out.

Look at that.

And then you've got this beautiful lamb with all those lovely onions.

You can see that flour has done the business.

And you get this real hit of that Worcestershire sauce that's done its thing.

♪ ♪ And there we have it, my version-- as I say, my version, because I am a Yorkshireman-- trying to replicate a Lancashire dish.

So any letters, I apologize.

♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Wherever you're from and wherever you're cooking it, that hotpot recipe is going to taste great.

♪ ♪ [upbeat rock music] ♪ ♪ I'm on my Lancashire road trip with local lass Lisa Allen.

She's been showing me round her home county and even fed me at her Michelin-starred restaurant.

That is an amazing, an amazing dish.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now, the only thing that could make my time here even better would be a nice cold pint.

And luckily, I know just the place.

♪ ♪ Now, I love my beer, particularly proper brewed beer.

So I'm back in Clitheroe to see a fantastic new brewery.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Bowland's Brewery occupies part of the old mill and makes beers of outstanding natural beauty.

It's even got a double decker bus that they've converted into a mobile bar.

How cool is that?

Anyway, I'm off to find out more about this beer from Tony, who's going to give me a guided tour.

- Tony.

- Hi, James.

It's good to see you.

You're all right.

Good to meet you.

Fine, mate.

You're busy.

Do you want me to give you hand with this one, then?

- If you don't mind, please.

- All right.

Yeah.

So what are we doing here, then?

I'm actually pouring the grain mixture, the malted barley, the sorted malt, the pearl malt into the grist hopper, where it's going to go up into the big one.

This is the beginning of the process, then is it?

It is the beginning-- total beginning of the process.

If you press that green button just behind you there, then-- All right.

--it will start to move.

OK.

Are you ready?

TONY: OK.

JAMES MARTIN: So does this get ground now, or it's just-- TONY: It's already ground.

This is going up into the big hopper.

And that's going to be going through tomorrow's brew.

But this is the bit that intrigues me.

So what's happening in here?

Right, so we've got the brewing liquor in these liquor tanks.

Liquor is just water to you and I. And then that water transfers over into this vessel called the mash tun.

So the grain's already come through into here.

And the hot liquor-- Yeah?

--approximately 72 degrees, will come down and mix with it and mash.

And it's a bit like brewing a cup of tea.

So this is your first heat.

This is the first heat.

OK.

And we're going to end up with a colored infused liquid.

Yeah.

TONY: The liquid's going to be called wort.

And how long will we keep it in there for?

We're going to keep it in there for approximately 70 minutes.

Right.

OK?

And then we're going to start to drain the wort out, as it's called.

- Yeah.

We're going to put more hot water in there.

JAMES MARTIN: Right.

This is where we're going to boil now at 100 degrees C and add the hops.

OK?

- OK.

Then, right, what happens with the rest of it, then?

Then what we're going to do is transfer the finished wort across here into the fermenter.

It's going to be cooled to 21 degrees.

In there, we're going to put the yeast.

That's going to be put on the top of the wort, and it's going to ferment.

And then-- This is where you get the alcohol.

Alcohol, yeah, ethanol, and carbon dioxide, which is the bubbles in your beer.

Right.

And then in approximately five days, we'll have the finished product, which is the ale that you're going to drink on the bar.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

TONY: This has come out of the mash tun.

JAMES MARTIN: Yeah.

TONY: This is the spent malt.

This is going to be used by a local farmer.

He's going to feed it to his dairy cattle.

And his dairy cattle actually produces the ice cream we sell in the ice cream parlor here.

JAMES MARTIN: So it's literally full circle, a bit like what we've just done.

TONY: Full circle, yeah.

JAMES MARTIN: Walking full circle.

Now I've got to have a taste of this.

This one is ready for going out tomorrow.

So if you want to-- - Why don't you do it?

You're taller than me.

That's why I'm not doing it.

OK?

Right.

- And you turn this.

- Turn this?

TONY: Yes.

The other way.

That's it.

Look at that.

TONY: Yeah.

This is Hen Harrier, one of our early beers.

Right.

And there you go.

And you can tell it's a nice beer.

I love it when it's cloudy and not clarified.

TONY: Right, OK.

That tastes really good.

And Tony, I've got to apologize.

I've got a confession to make.

I dragged this gentleman on stage about a couple of years back.

Two or three years ago.

Yeah, to whip me up some cream on stage.

And unfortunately, it was single cream, but I didn't tell him.

Sorry.

Sorry, Tony.

Sorry.

You're not really.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): With my lesson in beer-making over, it's time to get back to work.

And I found a great spot to cook-- in the mill's original engine room.

This is a pint of Buster.

But more importantly, look at this.

This is a Clayton and Goodfellow cross-compound horizontal steam engine from 1910, which powered the entire factory until it stopped working-- not the machine, but the factory.

Now, this is a really simple little dish.

I've got some beautiful pork chops, which I'm going to get straight on to cook.

Now, I've asked the butcher just to remove the rind from this, and I'm going to get this cooking with plenty of oil in our pan.

So I'm going to use olive oil for this one.

You can use rapeseed oil if you want, which, again, is local.

But I'm just going to put a little bit of oil in the pan and start cooking our chops.

I'm going to put the seasoning in there later, but get the chops on to cook.

Let me wash my hands.

A nice hot pan you want for this one, a bit of black pepper.

Now, I'm going to cook this almost like a little stew with those sort of crispy pork chops, as well.

And again, using all local produce, we've got some garlic, I've got some shallots.

And then I couldn't resist this selection here, some local herbs.

But particularly this caught my eye.

Now, this is actually lamb.

And I think with this dish, this would be perfect.

Saves you adding stock to it as well.

While the pork is cooking, we can then chop this up into chunks because you get so much flavor from this as well.

All the while, our pork is cooking away nicely.

We can prepare the rest of this.

Now, there's quite a bit of garlic going in this bit, so those people who don't like garlic, turn away now and just forget about this next 10 seconds while I chop it up like that.

A little bit of shallot, again, nice and thinly sliced.

You don't need too much.

Now, the reason why I like shallot anyway is because it's much milder than big white Spanish onions.

So you can cook it a lot quicker.

But the moisture of this dish comes from these-- mmm!-- tomatoes.

And if there's one sort of ingredient that epitomizes the season, really, it's tomatoes.

It's the thing that got me in cooking in the first place.

My uncle and my granddad used to produce the most fantastic tomatoes from the greenhouse.

And ever since I was a young kid, I remember the smell and the taste of fresh tomatoes.

And they were just like this.

You can't beat British tomatoes in season.

So we've got our nice little bit of pork.

Now we can then turn it over.

Look, you'll get that crispy crackling, which is what you want.

So flip that over and do the same thing on the other side.

Now, we'll just move those to one side, because we're going to create a little stew with this.

Salami in first, then the tomatoes.

Now we can put the shallots and the garlic in.

Start to sweat that down a little bit.

This is where we can go a little bit off piste, really, and you can do one or all three of these ingredients.

I just couldn't resist because they've got a shop here.

I'm not buying them, but these little fellas, Padrón peppers.

They're like a Russian roulette when it comes to tasting these.

They're just fabulous.

They can go in.

And then I've got some butter beans-- beautiful big organic butter beans.

Look at them.

Mmm!

A few bits of those in just for a bit of color, a bit of taste.

But then these.

If you're ever in a deli, get yourself some of these-- wood-smoked red peppers.

Look.

These little fellas over here, they taste amazing.

This is one of the things.

And it's amazing how food's changed over the years.

Because when I started cooking, these, you had them in restaurants for sure, but you didn't have them available like what they are now and just on a shelf that you can go and buy them.

That and things like the Padrón peppers.

So you see this is just gently cooking now.

So we're just going to deglaze this with just a touch of wine.

Not too much.

And just let that tick over with a nice bit of salt and pepper.

And I'll grab some parsley.

You can mix and match your herbs with this one.

But you know, look at this, English parsley.

And we chop it all up.

We can just lift off our pork now, look, 'cause this is about ready.

Lift this out.

And we can finish off our lovely little stew.

A little bit of parsley over there.

Stir all this lot in.

Look at that.

Now finally, we add a touch of butter.

Now, you can finish this with some oil, for sure.

But a little bit of butter just to enrich it, just a little bit.

Give this a stir.

You see?

Look at the colors of that.

Look.

Just check this out, look.

Simple, simple, simple.

Just delicious.

And then you take your pork chops.

[pleasant guitar music] ♪ ♪ Over the top.

And there you have it, a lovely little dish, 90% of which is local.

Cheers.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Pork chops never tasted so good.

With that salami, tomato, and pepper stew, it's the perfect dish to share.

And after all that, I think I've earned another pint.

This is almost the perfect end to a perfect day, innit really?

- Oh, absolutely.

And I didn't realize, I've got to say, this county has delivered big time.

We've got a lot to offer, us Lancastrians, you know?

You have, that's it.

And what do you find about the buffalo, really?

Because that's literally on your doorstep, isn't it?

LISA ALLEN: Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, I loved it.

Absolutely brilliant.

JAMES MARTIN: And great produce.

I mean, we've cooked with great fish.

You've cooked me that amazing dish.

I have to say, I was starting to twitch at one point, really, but I mean fabulous, fabulous dish.

Oh, thank you.

JAMES MARTIN: Brilliant brewery.

Go easy, because who's driving?

I'll be walking home, me.

[laughter] [theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪