[theme music] [airplane whirring] 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.

[laughs] Butter.

[laughs] [airplane whirring] Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

Woo-hoo!

[airplane whirring] [upbeat music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): I'm on a once in a lifetime trip around Britain.

I started in the Orkneys, and now I'm continuing my journey here on the east coast of Scotland.

My traveling companion, Nick Nairn, is in the passenger seat of my trusty Mini.

And this little beauty is gonna be with me for my whole trip.

[honks horn] So when was the last time you were in a Mini?

20 years ago.

It smells like I remember it.

It sounds like I remember it.

It rides like I remember it.

I don't know what it is with Minis.

They just make you smile.

I don't know.

I-- It's a nostalgia.

I think they're great.

And it's surprisingly comfortable for two big lads.

We're both 6 foot 3.

This isn't too bad, is it, really?

We're cozy.

Don't really need heating.

But other than that-- Shoulders touching.

Yeah, exactly.

Not much headroom JAMES: Yeah, but-- But enough.

I think they are the best car ever built.

My first Mini was at the Exchange and Mart, and it was 120 quid.

That was a good Mini.

Mine was 42 quid.

I think it was two Minis cut in half and joined together, though, that one.

♪ ♪ I tell you what, the gods were shining on us with the weather NICK: Oh, yeah.

Look at that.

That's stunning.

There is something about the sea.

I don't know.

It's just got a calming influence.

It's just fantastic.

It's elemental.

JAMES: I just think Scotland's got so much to offer, hasn't it, really?

That's-- that's the thing.

It is really an amazing larder for-- for you chefs who live here.

So much food gets exported from here.

I mean, literally, so much.

We're a massive net exporter of all the good stuff.

Langoustine, for instance, biggest producer of langoustine in the world.

As well as the meats, of course.

Yeah, whisky.

Whisky's not bad.

I'll let you that.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Anyway, enough of all this idle chit chat.

We've got somewhere to be, where being late won't go down too well.

[dramatic music] We're traveling to Lossiemouth, a quiet fishing town on the Moray Coast, home to one of the UK's two RAF quick reaction alert bases.

♪ ♪ That's the RAF base.

That's the base there.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): RAF Lossiemouth protects UK airspace with their Typhoon combat aircraft squadrons.

In fact, the first-ever RAF squadron was based here, and that's where we're heading now.

♪ ♪ The guys here have said they've got big plans for me and Nick.

Hopefully, the best stuff has been reserved for me, obviously.

NICK: I'm kind of looking forward to this.

JAMES: So am I. Hi, guys.

Nice to meet you, Nick.

Ian Smith.

- Ian, hi.

- Nice to meet you.

Welcome to RAF Lossiemouth.

Thank you very much.

Welcome.

How you doing, Zane?

Good to see you.

- Thank you.

- So we're excited about today - Yeah, really excited.

- We've built you up.

Well, we've got a bit of something special for you.

So if you want to follow this way?

Something-- something special, yeah.

James, fantastic to see you.

Welcome to One Fighter Squadron here.

And I think we can do something slightly better.

Now, please tell me we're gonna top trump him.

Absolutely.

[slow tempo music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Well, Zane wasn't joking.

It turns out, I'm gonna have a go in one of Lossiemouth's four flight simulators at their Typhoon training facility.

Now, I can fly.

I've got a license and everything, but this is a different level.

And apparently, if I pass muster, maybe I'll get to have a go in the real thing.

Just about to get airborne and go right because everything's good to go.

Checking our weapon system.

Checking our radar.

That's all good.

So what we'll do is start to pull back on the stick now.

Just nice and positive.

Now we're going to raise the gear.

Gear is traveling up.

We're airborne.

♪ ♪ ZANE: We just about avoided not flying to the ground.

[laughter] JAMES: It is not a computer game, this though, is it, really?

No, but the whole reason that we're going in this is to get airborne with other members of your formation.

And you are going to fight.

It's-- first and foremost, it's a weapon system.

We're always training against whichever adversary we're training against.

JAMES: Yeah.

Their tactics change, their weapons change, and we have to adapt with them as well.

Guys who've got 1,000, 2,000 hours on the Typhoon are still learning every day as tactics evolve as well.

And that's something that's changing all the time.

You want to devote as least amount of brain time to flying the aircraft-- Flying, 'cause it's-- it's the fullest amount of brain time for me.

You can see we're getting close to the runway here.

Hold that there.

That's right.

And there you are.

You're on the deck.

And that's it.

You've just landed a Typhoon.

- That's amazing.

- That was great.

My legs are shaking.

Brilliant.

Thank you.

- All right.

- Thank you so much.

I wish we had more time.

Very, very special treat.

Very special treat.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Well, that was a bucket list moment for me.

I loved it.

But I'm here to cook.

So what special dish can I do to match such a special experience?

Well, this place has some of the best seafood in the world, and particularly lobster from just down the road.

Now, as backdrops go for a cooking demo, this is pretty impressive.

Just look at that.

The new Typhoon is amazing bit of kit.

I'm going to do a very special dish.

This is lobster and crumpets, all right?

Fantastic combination, this.

So for these little crumpets, we have two different types of flour.

We have strong bread flour and plain flour, a little bit of bicarb soda in there.

And then add our dry ingredients first.

A pinch of sugar.

Now, this will feed the yeast.

So a bit of sugar, pinch of salt.

Now, a good tip, really, for whenever you're making anything with yeast is to keep the salt away from the yeast.

Although, you need salt for flavor, but what salt will do with yeast is kill it.

So you start off by keeping this separate.

So the salt's in that part of the bowl, and the yeast is gonna go in this side of the bowl.

Now, hopefully, somebody's gonna grab this pot of yeast, cameraman, because we aren't allowed to leave anything behind in case a little bit of yeast packet goes inside one of those engines, and it's a very expensive bill for ITV.

So we thought we'd leave it.

So now we turn our attention to our liquid.

You add the milk and water.

Just keep adding a little bit at a time using a whisk and mix this together.

Now, different flours will absorb different amounts of liquid.

And what we're trying to form is a batter.

So think of it like a fish and chip batter, really.

That's all I can describe it as.

Now, if somebody else will come along here and grab this lot.

Wasn't too conspicuous, was it, really, that?

That's Sam.

She's the superstar of this TV program.

Now, we leave that to one side.

Now, an ideal world at home in your kitchen, we would cover this over with cling film, but we don't want plastic flying around the aerodrome, so I'm gonna put that underneath.

[whirring] That's the lid closing.

And then we'll lift this off.

Sam will now come back again, take this off me.

Now, we need a ring for this.

You can use whatever you want to hand, but ideally, a metal ring.

And we're going to cook our little crumpets on a griddle or a flat plate.

So just a touch of oil, like that.

And we need some butter.

So a little bit of butter.

Just a little knob of butter like that.

Just get that on there.

Now, we don't want the griddle plate too hot, which is a good job because it's blowing a hoolie out here.

Then we've got-- looks like one of the base's great-grandmother's ladles.

Just put a little bit of this mixture in here.

Just gently cook it like that, and it's going to sit there.

In the meantime, while that's happening, we can prepare our lobster.

Now, I'm going to show you how to prepare it.

So with a lobster, you treat it almost like three parts, really-- the claws, the body, and the tail.

So most of the meat on a lobster comes in the claws and the tail.

Nature's been amazing for us.

It's actually drawn us a line all the way down the center.

So what we have to do with this, first of all, is take our lobster and follow that line.

Now, pop it in the head part first.

Now, this is cooked.

See?

Lobsters are blue.

And then they go red when they're cooked.

And you just basically insert the knife in, press down all the way through.

And then you follow that line along the back here.

Press it all the way down, right the way down until you get to the bottom.

And then all you do is open it up, like that.

And you've got this beautiful meat.

What you would then do is take the meat out of the shell, which is here.

Lift that out this way, and another one out this way.

And then you can take all the gubbins out of the center, and also the meat out of the claws.

Now, the easiest way to get the meat out of the claws is break this into three, one part there and one part there.

Get your finger, and you can push this through.

Depending on the size of the lobster, really, little lobsters, you may get your fingers stuck.

And you see there's quite a lot of meat that comes out of these little claws.

So don't waste any of these.

So somebody else will take these shells because we don't want those going into a Typhoon jet engine.

CREW: Just put it in the bin.

There's a bin under.

Bin underneath, apparently.

Now they tell me.

Next, we've got our claw.

And the easiest way to do that is to grab a knife, crack it, back of the knife, one at the top, one again, and just break open the meat.

Now, when you twist the meat, pull the claw meat out like that.

So we've got a nice amount of meat here, which is exactly what we want.

Taking our other bits of meat off the tail as well, you can just chop these up.

So to cook this, quite simply, we're going to take our lobster.

[sizzling] Pop it in our pan to warm this up.

A little bit of samphire.

Now, samphire is an amazing ingredient as well, sometimes called sea asparagus.

It's a wonderful, wonderful thing, this.

Slightly salty.

It's not actually grown in the sea, like seaweed.

It's grown on the shores, particularly rocks.

And it's the spray from the ocean that causes this beautiful samphire to survive.

But it's amazing stuff, delicious.

Really, really strong in flavor, but absolutely delicious.

A little bit of spinach in here, few leaves, touch of tarragon, a few bits of that in there as well.

Season this up.

Salt and pepper, like that.

Touch more butter.

And then a nice little crumpet.

If we just lift this off, it's a thing of beauty.

Look.

So finish this off.

We do have in here a touch of nutmeg.

But it is quite windy here.

So, yeah, it's working.

Just a touch of nutmeg over it.

Don't want too much.

Like that.

And then now we can then turn this over.

So we can just grab a little palette knife and then flip this over.

[laughs] Like that.

Now mix together the lobster, the spinach, and the butter.

You're just warming this through, really.

And then grab yourself a plate, and then lift this off.

[slow tempo music] And then you can grab your lobster.

Just pop this on there.

A little bit of crumpet.

♪ ♪ See, look at that.

This is just what you want, lobster and a warm crumpet, and five Typhoon fighters.

[upbeat music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Probably not part of the recommended diet for pilots in training, but it'll do for me.

[slow tempo music] ♪ ♪ JAMES: Now, as you know, in life, you can plan many things.

But the weather, you can't because today, we were supposed to be going out there mackerel fishing.

But according to the fishermen, there's a big sweel.

So whilst the weather's good here, it's pretty bad out there.

So the producers gave me two options, one of which was going surfing.

I chose the second one.

[upbeat music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): And who can blame me?

Behind door number two is a visit to local brewery Windswept.

I'm gonna meet owners Al and Nigel, two ex-RAF pilots who are proving there's life after the Air Force.

Hi there, gents.

Unusual place to have a bar.

Yeah.

In an industrial estate.

But it's all about the brewery.

So tell-- tell me about where this concept first started.

I mean, whose idea was it?

We'd been brewing for a few years.

And I said to Nigel, one day, I'm thinking of starting a microbrewery.

JAMES: This is home kit?

NIGEL: That's right, in the garage.

AL: Yeah, home kit in the garage.

There's a group of us.

We're ex-Air force.

JAMES: And am I right in thinking each one of these is named after something to do with the base?

AL: The Wolf is named after the Wolf of Badenoch, a bit of a historical bad boy in the area, burnt down Elgin Cathedral.

And then we've got beers that we name after the jets, so the Tornado, the Typhoon, Hurricane.

This is a beer I was brewing in my garage for a while.

I love this.

This is-- what a great story this is.

In your garage, right.

Go on.

NIGEL: In the garage.

It's got mostly pale malt, a little bit of crystal, some of this chocolate malt in it.

So it gives you lovely roast barley flavors, nice chocolate, espresso coffee, and a bitter, bitter sort of-- Toasty flavor as well.

That's right, yeah.

JAMES: I've got to try the latest one.

AL: Hurricane is our current session IPA, good, big hoppy beer.

I'll pour you one of these.

JAMES: Now, tell me about this because, I mean, 20 years as a fast jet pilot?

NIGEL: I joined the Air Force in '91, came up here in '96, and I never left.

Al was backwards and forwards in-- Germany and America for a bit.

Went to the States for a bit on exchange.

He got to fly the F-15.

I'm not jealous at all.

It's a bit of bitterness going on here, isn't there?

We don't talk about that.

JAMES: So you've got the job you always, always wanted.

Some of you fly in better aircraft than others.

NIGEL: Let's not-- let's not go into that.

But you train-- to train like that, and then to give it all up?

AL: For me, it coincided with starting a family and just having more time to explore hobbies.

And in the Air Force, the same way we trained and geeked out on planes, we've done the same on brewing.

[slow tempo music] JAMES: So when was the transition from brewing this in your garage to here?

NIGEL: November 2012 was when we first brewed here.

It took us about 11 months to set up the brewery.

JAMES: How much did you use to produce in your garage to what you do now?

AL: 20 liters a time.

But now we produce about 200,000 liters a year.

We built our own mash tuns and the likes in our garage.

The mash tun here is just-- it's 80 times bigger.

It's the same single infusion technique that we use in the garage.

You take it, you boil it up, you chill it, you put it in a fermenter.

Ours are just bigger and shinier.

JAMES: You've certainly made a success out of it because, I mean, there are awards everywhere.

NIGEL: The APA, which was one of the-- the very first beer we brewed-- Eight months later, it was the Scottish champion strong bitter.

And-- and at the same time, Wolf picked up the Scottish Champion, dark ale.

That was within eight months of starting.

We'd got two national golds.

And having this here is an added bonus.

It's just brilliant, yeah.

Great fun.

Really great.

It's nice-- nice for us to have a pub we can go to.

[laughter] I love this, fast jet pilots and now brewery owners.

Love it.

Love it.

[slow tempo music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): I love this beer so much that it's inspired a recipe I'm gonna cook up at home.

Now, I've got the perfect dish to go with this beer.

Oh.

It's good stuff, that.

And I'm going to do a beef and carrot and beer stew.

But it all starts, really, with the quality of the meat.

So this is Scottish beef, but it's also from the shin of beef.

And then what we need to do now is color it because this is the crucial bit to this recipe.

It all starts at the very beginning.

If you mess this up at the start, you've got problems later on.

So the first thing we do is get a very, very hot pan, a little bit of oil, and then start to sear the beef.

[gentle music] So sear it really, really well.

That is what I'm looking for, that color.

Now, this color is so important, not just in terms of the flavor, but in terms of the appearance to your stew.

If you don't color the meat at the beginning, you won't end up with a nice brown stew at the end.

So once you've got to that stage, what I like to do is just decant the meat out, really.

I'm going to do it in two batches.

If you put all of it in one pan, just the temperature of the pan suddenly drops.

♪ ♪ So now you take the rest of the beef, fry it up again.

Now, while this is frying away, getting additional color, we're gonna turn our attention to the veg for this and keep it really, really simple.

So I'm just gonna use some onions, cut stuff chunky.

The carrots as well, literally just cut the carrots in half, just as they are.

Herb-wise, I'm just gonna use some fresh thyme.

I'll chop that up as well.

And then we'll just finish off covering the meat.

Now, before you add the veg, it's a good idea to add the flour because the flour is also quite crucial.

But too much, and we end up turning this into a very thick stew.

What we want for this amount of meat, about a tablespoon and a half.

And then you need to cook out the flour.

Just fry it with the meat for about a minute.

Then you can add the veg.

We've got the carrots, the onions, and the fresh thyme.

Then the liquor element comes in two parts.

Of course, we've got this beer.

Now, it's a good idea to use, let's say, small local breweries for your beer.

Even if you use lager for this, you don't want anything, dare I say, too fizzy.

You want it to taste hoppy, which is exactly what this is.

You can see straight away, look, the color you get from this.

[slow tempo music] Now, what you need to do is offset this with some beef stock.

Now, you can use the powdered stuff.

It's fine.

But the fresh beef stock is great for this.

But just cover the meat.

Just leave this to gently simmer.

Now, you can pop it in the oven for at least a couple of hours to cook.

And what I've got in here is one that's been in the oven.

And if I give it a quick stir, you can see what's happened.

It started to break down.

The carrots, you can still see.

The onions, you can still see.

That flour has just thickened it ever so slightly.

Then what we need to do is season this.

So give it a quick taste and season it as if you're gonna serve it.

Although this is going to take about another 20 minutes to cook, make sure you season it so it's all ready.

And then finally, we're going to add a little bit of parsley to this, just some chopped parsley.

Give this a quick stir.

What makes stew even more special is dumplings.

The recipe hasn't changed, really, over the years.

We've got in here some suet.

I've got self-raising flour.

Self-raising flour is quite important.

And then all we're gonna do is mix this together with some water and, again, some chopped parsley.

What you're looking for is a combination between a dough and a batter.

The dough itself needs to be quite tacky.

Look, you can see this.

It's not solid.

It's not like bread dough.

It shouldn't roll out into perfect balls.

Just-- just put them on the top like that.

It's one of the joys in life is a dumpling.

We don't make them enough.

And then what you need to do now is basically just leave those.

Cover it over.

They're going to gently simmer for about 20 minutes with a lid on.

[gentle music] You just know it's gonna taste good, don't you?

It's the anticipation of stuff like this.

You just take it to the table like that.

You don't need to do anything fancy with it.

Just scoop it out.

Look at these wonderful dumplings, fluffy.

Chunks of carrot.

And you've got just enough flour to thicken up the sauce.

And do you know what?

I don't usually dive in, but I'm gonna on this because beef stew and dumplings is just-- well, it's heaven, isn't it, really?

♪ ♪ That tastes as good as it looks.

Cheers.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): There's nothing quite like a beef and ale stew with delicious fluffy dumplings.

[bright music] I'm in Scotland, Lossiemouth, to be precise, where me and my old mate, Nick Nairn, have been lucky enough to visit the RAF.

Earlier, the guys told us they had a couple of challenges lined up.

Mine was to fly an amazing Typhoon simulator.

We just about avoided not flying to the ground.

[laughter] JAMES (VOICEOVER): And Nick has been tasked with schooling some of the new recruits in the kitchen.

They must have known he was coming.

Now, guys, traditionally, on base, you'd eat in the mess, yeah?

Yeah.

But now, with this new, amazing redeveloped facility at Lossiemouth, you've got the opportunity to cook for yourselves.

- Yeah.

It's not extensive.

You've got a grill.

You've got a microwave, a board, and a kettle.

So what sort of things do you normally cook?

Put in the microwave.

Microwave meals, yeah.

I've come up with an idea of something that you could do very simply in this kind of space.

And it's a little salad.

So in here I've got some salad stuff.

So I've got some cherry tomatoes, some cucumbers, some salad leaves, some spring onions.

Anything that you've got that's fresh and crunchy, you can stick in here.

And then I've got a dressing, which is, I think, a little bit of genius.

You've got some caster sugar.

You've got fresh lime juice.

You've got Thai fish sauce and chili flakes in here.

So I'm going to dress the salad with this.

And you just want to make sure that all of the leaves are completely coated.

And I've got a chicken breast, a little bit of salt, little bit of pepper, a little bit of crushed garlic, cooked it in the grill.

Take the pieces of chicken and just chop them up into little bits.

It's very, very quick, exactly the kind of thing that you guys should be doing.

So to put this together, I have James's large serving platter because, if you notice, James never cooks a small amount of food.

He always cooks a generous amount of food.

So the salad is going to go out onto here.

Any combination of different colors and textures is always going to give you something that's really tasty.

And then over the top, the marinated chicken pieces.

And then I've just got a bit of coriander, fresh coriander.

And lastly, just another little bit of drizzle of dressing over the top.

Not too much.

It's really strong.

The proof, of course, is in the eating.

So if you want to try some?

This is the stuff you should be eating, you know?

It's low in carbohydrates, high in protein, low in fat.

It's super healthy, and I think it's super tasty.

But you tell me.

- That's brilliant.

I love that.

Cheers.

- Really good.

- Enjoy it, yeah?

That's incredible.

Especially something that we can make in the block as well.

NICK: Absolutely, yeah.

MALE RECRUIT: Easy, time-consuming.

NICK: Yeah.

MALE RECRUIT: Spot-on.

I'm hoping that just maybe a little taste of something like that puts the light bulbs on inside.

You think, ooh, do you know?

I could make life a bit more interesting, a bit healthier, maybe save a few bob as well.

MALE RECRUIT: Thanks so much.

That was lovely.

But you're gonna need these.

These?

What am I going to need these for?

[rock music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Turns out Nick's joining a training session.

I think I lucked out with my simulator challenge.

Look at me.

Not exactly in my peak of physical fitness.

And look at them, lean, mean.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Sorry, mate.

[ding] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Disqualify me.

1, 6.

♪ ♪ [cheering] ♪ ♪ Well done.

TRAINER: All right, guys, swap it around.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Rather you than me, mate.

[slow tempo music] Anyway, you may remember I was supposed to go mackerel fishing, but couldn't because the sea was too rough?

Well, I still want to share with you my lovely mackerel recipe.

JAMES: What is amazing along the coastline up there is the beautiful selection of seafood and fish that you can get.

And I've got one of my favorites here, mackerel.

I wanted to keep this whole to show you how fresh it is.

You can tell that from the eyes.

It's nice and shiny.

It doesn't smell.

And all that's happened is the fishmonger has removed the insides out of it.

If you don't like the heads on the mackerel, then this point, you can take them off.

Trim it all the way through, slice that, and we can just pop these onto our tray.

If you want to increase the flavor of this, what you could do is just score a little bit.

[gentle music] Just with a knife along the top.

Now, this looks fabulous just as it is, really.

But I'm just gonna increase the flavor just ever so slightly with a bit of lemon.

Not too much.

Keep the flavors nice and simple, but just fresh lemon juice over the top.

That lemon juice falls inside those little gaps.

And then some olive oil, black pepper, and a pinch of salt over the top.

I mean, just look at that.

It just looks like a beautiful picture just as it is there.

Really simple.

And then I've set the oven quite high because I want this skin to slightly color on the top as well.

So this goes in about 400, 420 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's about 210, 220 degrees centigrade.

And we're gonna roast that now, quite simply, for about 8 to 10 minutes.

This bit is all about the cauliflower.

Cauliflower and fish works amazing.

Just remove the little florets from the cauliflower.

Just break these down a little bit into smaller pieces.

And then what you want is a pan on the stove.

Now, you want this quite hot.

These are probably gonna take about five minutes to cook, no more than that.

And then you require just a little bit of butter.

[sizzling] Half a pack.

And then you get the butter foaming in the pan.

Then we can add our cauliflower.

You're gonna cook this now on a high heat for about three or four minutes.

So while that's on, we can prepare our mango because this dressing is really simple.

It's just basically mango and vinegar.

Now, with a mango, the stone is shaped the same as the fruit.

So you want to end up kind of the same shape as what you originally started with once you've peeled it.

Cut that bit off, and then trim around the edge.

So once you've got all the mango out, get rid of the stone.

And then all we do is just blitz this.

[slow tempo music] Now, to add a bit of sharpness to this, rather than just blitz this on its own, we're gonna add just a touch of vinegar.

[whirring] What you end up with is a simple little mango puree.

But you've got that hint of vinegar, which is perfect to go with the oiliness of mackerel.

Now, to finish this off, we add some curry powder.

And really, with this, you've got to buy the best curry powder you can find.

Take it off the heat.

And you only add this at this point.

If you add it too early, it burns the powder.

So we just dust this with a little bit of curry powder over the top, a little bit of lemon, and some salt and pepper.

So once you've got the salt and pepper in, just give this a little mix through.

This is fine.

Then, of course, what we've got, really, is the mackerel.

When you cook it nice and hot, the skin starts to char a little bit.

It's exactly what you want.

Now, I want the flavor of this cauliflower, but I don't want the butter in it, really.

I never thought I would actually say that.

So what I'm gonna do is just drain this off.

Just leave that sat there, 'cause then all you really want to do now is plate it.

And what I have got is a selection of leaves.

Now, this is watercress.

Fabulous stuff.

But what is also fabulous is some of this out of my garden, some wonderful bits of fennel.

I've got some gorgeous little nasturtium leaves, a little bit of wild thyme, all different sort of wild and fresh herbs.

And then to plate it, first of all, I'm gonna take a nice piece of fish onto your plate.

And then we can just put-- why don't we do a cheffy thing?

And then you can build this up with some nice bits of cauliflower.

And then, of course, you've got a bit of watercress, fennel, a few nice little bits of nasturtiums.

This is a bit poncey, I know, but that is a fantastic tasting dish.

Bon appetit.

JAMES (VOICEOVER): Mackerel has got to be one of my favorite fish.

And roasted with curried cauliflower and mango, it's simply sublime.

[rock music] I spent the day at RAF Lossiemouth.

I've met the pilots.

I've trained in the flight simulator.

My time to fly has come.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES: Zane said I aced the landing in the sims.

So he's promised me a trip.

Now, forget footballers.

Forget F1 drivers.

This is proper.

Proper.

So, Ian.

- Hey, James.

I've dressed the part.

All ready to go.

You're the big boss who decides who goes in what.

So what am I in, then?

Well, fantastic.

This is the supersonic fighter aircraft, known as the Typhoon.

I know.

Can do anything.

You've had a go in a simulator, a thousand miles an hour, air defense, ground attack.

Look, everyone has a go on this.

And I think you're a bit overdressed.

This is the Aeronca Champ.

A what?

What's it called?

It's an Aeronca Champ.

Built 74 years ago, in the days when aviation was glamorous, when piloting was difficult.

Not like all the computers in here, jet engines, noise, smell.

We're gonna go and see the lovely countryside of North Scotland at 60 miles an hour.

[dramatic music] An Aeronca Champ?

I feel a bit overdressed.

♪ ♪ JAMES (VOICEOVER): Oh, go on then.

Time to put my pilot's license to good use.

Well, if I can handle a Typhoon flight simulator, this should be pretty straightforward.

[record scratches] If I can stay on the runway.

[engine running] Oops.

[dramatic music] Just as well they didn't let me loose with a fighter jet.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The view from up here is incredible.

You know, I talk a big talk.

But when it comes to planes, I definitely think I'm better suited to the vintage variety.

♪ ♪ That's another landing I've aced today.

I could get used to this pilot's life.

Here.

I loved that.

- Awesome.

I loved it.

Brilliant.

Thank you so much.

IAN: You're very welcome.

Hey!

[rock music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): Right, back to the day job.

I'm cooking Aberdeen Angus beef with a whisky sauce.

It doesn't get more Scottish than that.

And a fitting tribute to my new fighter jet pilot mates here at Lossiemouth.

I thought we'd do a massive steak.

This is all in one pan.

Now, I thought I had enough steak, but clearly, I don't because we've now got an audience.

Say hi.

- Hi.

Hi.

JAMES: A lot of them.

So this would be a little piece of steak for all of them each.

So we're gonna start off with this beautiful bit of steak.

You've got to cook this at room temperature.

That is the key to this, which is quite good out here because room temperature is about 3 degrees.

Salt and pepper at first, black pepper and a nice bit of salt.

Plenty of seasoning on here.

So get that on.

And then oil the meat.

That's the important bit.

So whenever you've got a griddle pan, that's the key to it.

You always oil the product, not the pan.

So plenty of oil.

And then take the steak like that.

[sizzles] That's what I like to hear.

Nice little griddle pan.

I'm gonna go wash my hands because we get letters.

Done.

And then what we're gonna do is we're going to basically just make the sauce.

So this is like caramelized shallots.

It's asparagus, it's mushrooms, all in one pan.

So first of all, with these little bit of onions or shallots.

You can make this with smaller, little pickling onions as well if you want, but they're a bit faffing around, really.

But all you do with these is you cut these in half.

Now, we just take a little bit of oil into our frying pan.

Nice hot pan again.

Touch of oil.

Not too much oil.

Pop the onions in.

Now, so many times with sauces, particularly with steak, you would chop these up into small pieces.

With these, I want them quite chunky, which is what I look like in this suit, to be honest.

So we just put a few of these little bits of onions in there and just basically color them on the base.

Now, at the same time, we can prepare our asparagus.

Our asparagus, we'll just trim up.

We can then put our asparagus in, like that.

And this starts to char a little bit in our pan.

Same time, we can prepare our mushrooms.

Just cut these into chunks.

Not too fine.

Don't need anything like that.

Just into pieces like this.

And then this can sit in here, all the while just coloring nicely.

Now, this piece of meat like this would serve a four-year-old up here for breakfast.

They like the food up here.

This has been cooking away for about a minute.

So at that point, we then grab our little fork and then turn it.

Now, you can see the little marks.

All we do with that is just turn it the other way.

[sizzling] Like that.

And it'll create these little marks on the top.

And we're only going to turn this over once, literally.

So we're going to cook it all the way through on one side, and then we'll turn it over.

So we can then start to flick our shallots over, which are nicely coloring.

This will give the sauce a nice little flavor as well.

Get this beautiful color with the little shallots.

And then the sauce, really, is pretty straightforward.

We've got butter.

We've got some tarragon, a little bit of tarragon, like that.

And we've got some whisky.

Now, this stuff is from literally just down the road, apparently 25 minutes by car.

But in our jets here, about three and a half seconds, probably.

But this makes an amazing sauce.

If you were making a mustard sauce at home, this is amazing.

So the finishing part of the sauce, really, in terms of the veg is just a tiny bit of garlic.

Now, the reason why we put the garlic in now is we don't want it to burn.

If the garlic burns, it goes bitter.

So, so often, when you fry enough onions, you would throw the garlic in at the beginning.

And you get this really weird aftertaste.

We'll put it in now, like that.

So everything's nearly there now.

Now, to finish off our sauce, we can then probably take our steak now.

Just literally just turn that over, like that.

Start cooking the other side.

Now you can decide how well you want it cooked by simply pressing, just like that.

When it's the same texture as this part of your thumb, that is rare.

As you start to go to the next finger, it becomes a little bit firmer.

That's medium rare.

This one, medium, firms up again.

This one's knackered.

Don't want that one.

I want that one, which is like that.

So to finish off our sauce, the sauce is very, very straightforward.

So we take a little bit of whisky.

[sizzling] Just a bit of that.

In we go with our cream.

Just a little bit of double cream.

And then we need some butter.

And the butter will enrich the sauce as well, like that.

Add a touch of tarragon.

Tarragon's always a great herb with steak.

It's fantastic with chicken and fish.

But you can use tarragon in different ways.

You actually put it in the beginning of the cooking or at the end.

Or what I like to do is put a bit of both, really.

But put a few bits, sprigs of tarragon in.

And now all we're going to do now is basically just bring that to the boil and cook that for about three to four minutes.

Now, also, as important it is to cook the steak properly, it is to rest it properly.

So take it off the griddle like that.

Don't put it straight on the plate and serve it.

It's no good at all.

We can then just finish off our little sauce.

So touch of black pepper.

A bit of salt.

And at the end.

And then what I'm going to do is just finish this off, just with a little knob of butter to finish this off at the end.

That's it.

And then what we've got to do is switch everything off, like that.

And then literally, just to plate it, pop it on there.

And the great thing about this is everything's cooked in one pan, the shallots, the asparagus.

If you want to put potatoes in there, you can do.

But you want plenty of shallots with that.

You've got your nice sauce, which is lovely with this with the mushrooms.

But everything's cooked in one pan.

And then, of course, we've got our steak, which you can then carve this up into nice pieces.

And you see by testing it with your finger and thumb, you should, in theory, never cook steak wrong again.

Just put a few bits of that on there.

And then finally-- I don't know why I do this, but I do this because our director likes it.

Put a sprig of tarragon on it.

[upbeat music] JAMES (VOICEOVER): So there's my Aberdeen Angus steak with whisky sauce.

Hopefully, it'll be enough to win Nick's forgiveness.

Nick.

[laughs] A surprise?

The surprise was the RAF physical fitness test.

What do you mean?

How did it go?

What do you want, the good news or the bad news?

You are proper sweaty.

Good news.

Good news, I passed.

JAMES: Really?

- Yeah.

JAMES: Bad news?

- I'm bust.

JAMES: Well, you got some steak here.

Do you want to taste it?

NICK: Yeah, I'd love some.

I need to rebuild my protein.

All right.

Everything.

[jet whirring] James, this is really tasty.

JAMES: I've got you something that you've probably never tried before.

I've got you some of this.

It's called Tornado.

It's brewed by two ex-pilots.

Yeah?

And literally, it's an eight-minute walk.

Or now you're a super fit human being, it's probably about a 30-second run.

Cheers.

What a day.

Fantastic.

You know, this is my country.

I was born and brought up here.

And I've seen things that I just didn't know existed.

So thanks very much for that-- - It's a pleasure.

--and for opening the doors It's absolutely a pleasure.

Well, all that's left to do, really is wash up.

I've got a flight to take.

He's a swine.

[upbeat music] [jets whirring] JAMES: Today has been like a boyhood dream come true.

To come to an airbase like this, it's just amazing on all different levels.

It's pretty spectacular, this place, in terms of the produce you get out in the sea, the lobster.

I mean, that just tasted delicious with those little crumpets.

The beer, and it's got a great connection with this place.

But then the highlight for me was going up in that little plane.

The amount of work that you've got to do just to get that little plane up in the air is incredible.

And I thought cooking was cool.

[jet whirring] [theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪