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

From farmers to fishermen, planes, trains and automobiles.

[train accelerates] [aircraft accelerates] Woo-hoo!

[aircraft accelerates] And phenomenal seafood.

That is the finest ingredient in the world.

[sizzling] How good does that look?

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

How good is that?

That's sensational, absolutely sensational.

[vehicle accelerates] It's good, the suspension on a Mini.

[laughter] [aircraft accelerates] Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

[aircraft accelerates] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): My adventure has brought me to Northern Ireland, a country that I love.

I have a particular weak spot for the stunning North Coast.

So it's where I'm heading first, with my old mate and local legend Paul Rankin, who knows this place like the back of his hand.

[upbeat music] [vehicle accelerates] I remember first meeting you.

There was an old program called Ready, Steady, Cook.

Yeah, yeah.

For us, it was quite a big deal.

Yeah.

And I remember, there was two chefs that you wanted to beat.

It was you and Nick Nairn-- [laughs] JAMES: --for me.

The three of us were working in commercial kitchens then.

And we all pretended that we weren't competitive.

So we'd lie.

[laughs] And we all wanted to win every single one.

26.

You won 26 in a row-- 26 in a row, yeah.

Wow, I thought I held the record.

No, you didn't hold the record.

I thought I got 27.

You liar!

[laughter] [vehicle accelerates] So tell me about Northern Ireland.

What can you teach me about this place?

Well, this is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

So it's got such amazing beaches, great seafood.

The people are nice.

They're very droll and dry.

So give me some ethos of food, then.

What can we look forward to here?

What-- what-- PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, all the good seafood up here.

You get everything, you know.

Dexter cattle, the little Dexters, as well-- PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, the Dexters-- --with the-- with their little legs.

[laughs] It's true.

[laughter] ♪ ♪ PAUL: You know why you used to win those Ready, Steady, Cook things?

Why's that?

Because that spun sugar thing you used to do.

No, it wasn't anything to do with it-- no, it wasn't-- You just put that spun sugar on.

Wasn't your cooking.

It was like the spun sugar, huh.

Should have done it, shouldn't you?

[laughter] I should have, actually.

But that was your-- How have you just come out with that-- --that was your thing.

That was your thing.

Yeah, well, you're very bitter about it.

I can clearly tell.

I'd forgotten about it until you came to visit.

Now I'm going to be upset.

[laughter] See, only in Ireland.

Why would you do that?

Why would you put a little wee fence there?

That's for the little people.

[laughter] Look at that.

It's to keep the Dexter cows with short legs.

You know they've got short legs.

[laughter] PAUL RANKIN: This is Rathlin island.

JAMES MARTIN: You should buy that.

PAUL RANKIN: I should, though.

Are you selling it?

I'm not selling it.

[laughter] I could see you on an island like that-- You know, I wouldn't have to talk to you, wouldn't have to talk to Nairn, wouldn't have to talk to Turner-- Like a-- like an old sea dog.

PAUL RANKIN: I could just-- We'd come and visit you, oh, occasionally, where you just throw stuff at us.

I could just be really miserable, you know-- Yeah, I know.

I could see you on stuff like that.

Yeah.

♪ ♪ [vehicle accelerates] [celtic music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Northern Ireland is made up of six counties, and at its closest point, it's actually only 12 miles from Scotland.

We're on the Northern Coast, home to the Giant's Causeway, which is where we're headed right now.

JAMES MARTIN: So what is this area called?

PAUL RANKIN: This is called the Causeway Coast.

It's got that certain thing, that when you're somewhere wild, it's almost like Mother Nature is giving you a hug.

JAMES MARTIN: Oh, look at this.

PAUL RANKIN: It's nice, huh?

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Not bad, eh?

This is one of the natural wonders of the world.

Yeah.

PAUL RANKIN: And Northern Ireland has two.

I'm the other one.

- You're the-- [laughter] Do you know, when I look at you, I look-- I see a glimpse of the future-- What?

--if I don't eat.

Oh!

[laughter] You're cheeky.

Now, once we finish here, I'm going to send you on a mission for Northern Irish treasure.

Gold, in fact.

PAUL RANKIN: You want me to go find gold?

JAMES MARTIN: You are.

You're going to find it.

PAUL RANKIN: I think you'd have a better chance of me finding a leprechaun.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): The Giant's Causeway is a World Heritage Site, famous for its iconic interlocking columns of basalt rock that are visited by tourists from all over the world.

And today is no exception.

♪ ♪ So while Paul goes off on his treasure hunt, I'm going to cook for the crowds.

I'm going to be honest with you, I've cooked in some weird locations in my life.

This is top two because we've got stuff dotted everywhere on these stones.

And when I first got off the bus, there is a bus to get down here, it just reminded me of Blockbuster.

It really is incredible.

And I thought I'd do a wonderful little dish celebrating the amazing seafood that we have.

So mussels are on the menu.

And it's kind of like a chowder-y thing, but it's not.

So the first thing we're going to do is get on and cook our mussels.

Now, for that, we just need some water.

And we've got these wonderful mussels.

Now, the fishmonger has prepared these mussels.

And what I mean by that is basically de-bearded them.

Ah, he's left one, look.

This is the little beard.

They attach themselves to ropes, generally in estuaries and stuff like that, all around the coast of this area.

I'm going to cook these quite simply.

Hot pan.

In we go with the mussels.

All right.

And cook them with nothing else.

You don't need anything else.

No herbs, nothing.

Lid on.

And we're going to cook these for about two or three minutes.

Meanwhile, we can prepare the rest of our ingredients.

So a nice little bit of shallot, which we're going to chop up.

I just chop this quite finely because it's quite a quick and simple dish to cook.

And then all we need to do now is just lift this off because these cook really quick.

[gasps] Oh!

One of the best, best things ever.

But it's also, probably, without a doubt, the most boring thing to watch, in terms of TV.

So while I do this, and it's going to take me about three to four minutes to take all the meat out of here, you guys get to enjoy the view.

I'll see you in a bit.

Off you go.

[celtic flute music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ These are spectacular.

Now, I won't eat too many because we've got a bit of a crowd.

What are you lot doing?

[laughter] Right, we're going to make a little roux.

A little bit of butter in the pan.

You cannot make this with margarine at all.

So it needs to be butter.

Don't brown the butter because now we're going to add our onions.

We want to soften the onions down.

Now, the flour we're going to use for this is just some standard plain flour.

It doesn't have to be self-raising flour.

And then this is what's the important bit is you don't put too much in.

Keep it mixing.

Not too much flour.

That's enough.

And then to make our sauce for this, you can keep whisking.

And we're going to use the liquor, the juice out of the mussels, and add a little bit to start with.

And it starts to thicken up, little by little.

If you add too much, at one go, it just goes lumpy.

Keep it on the heat and keep mixing it.

Now this is just one part of the liquor that I've got in here.

Now I'm going to add some milk, full fat milk.

And again, the same process applies till it starts to come together as a soup.

And we won't want it too thick.

So once you get to that stage, we can add a touch of cream to this as well.

And that starts to come together nicely.

Now, I've got in here some potatoes, and you can't cook in this neck of the woods without these things.

In we go with the spuds.

In with the potatoes.

And it gradually starts to-- just to help thicken it.

Now I can add the mussels to it as well.

They can go in.

And then turn my attention to the fish.

We've got this beautiful salmon.

Now, this is obviously farmed salmon.

But you used to be able to get, when I first came to Ireland, wild salmon from around there.

It is absolutely delicious, this combination of mussels, salmon, and particular crab, because the shellfish like it here is like nothing else.

Take the salmon, chop it up, so it's going to cook quite quickly.

Once it goes in there, literally, the clock's ticking.

You want about two minutes.

We can then put our lid back on and gently cook that.

And meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy the view, even if they aren't.

[celtic flute music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Right.

After a couple of minutes, look at this.

And then we can turn our attention to the crab.

Now, it's probably one of the finest things apart from langoustines that I've tasted in Northern Ireland.

And when you taste fresh crab-- I mean, really good fresh crab-- you'll never forget it.

Here, look, do you want a bit?

Excuse me.

[laughter] No thanks.

No, I don't think.

[laughter] Not quite into sushi, just yet, but fresh crab is just fabulous.

This has already been pre-cooked, so we're going to switch off the heat now because the salmon is cooked.

You can see that.

If you just literally press this, the salmon just starts to break up.

And now we can turn our attention to our crab.

So fresh white crab meat mixed in together with the brown crab meat.

This is where you get a distinct kick of crab flavor.

And then whatever herbs you want into here.

So you can put a few chives, which we can basically just chop up.

Don't be too fancy with it.

Literally, just take the entire lot straight in.

We've got some good old Irish sea salt here.

So get the seasoning in, all right?

Mix this together.

Black pepper, look at the amount of seasoning I'm putting in.

Give this a quick mix.

Now, I would taste this, but seeing as we have a group over here that are quite influential in terms of their taste buds-- [laughter] Is that any good?

[laughter] Does it need anything else?

No, I don't think so-- JAMES MARTIN: No?

- Thank you.

- You didn't see this bit.

[smacks] [laughter] [smacks] He's lying.

It needs a bit more black pepper.

[laughter] So the heat is off now.

And then all we do is get yourself a bowl.

And it just so happens on these rocks, I've got a bowl and a ladle.

It's amazing, this place.

[bright music] Look, we take this mixture.

Now, normally, I would stop there.

Because I'm on this trip with Ireland's first-ever Michelin star chef, we have to do this, a little cheffy drizzle.

And also a bit of this.

♪ ♪ My work here is done.

♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So there's my Causeway-inspired fish chowder.

And it's one heck of a crowd pleaser.

♪ ♪ [festive music] My traveling companion in these parts is my old mate, Paul Rankin.

Earlier, I sent him on a treasure hunt for Irish gold-- rapeseed oil, to be exact.

He's off to meet the Kane family on their farm in Myroe.

[vehicle accelerates] [bright music] PAUL RANKIN: The story goes that in 1896, a huge treasure trove of gold was found right here in Broighter Farm.

After a lengthy legal battle, it was taken by the state.

And it's now on display in the National Museum in Dublin.

Today there's a different kind of gold here, and it's shining very brightly.

♪ ♪ So, Leona and Richard, are you guys out here looking for more gold?

We found our gold, Paul.

This is our liquid gold.

- You have.

There's loads of it.

There's absolutely loads of it.

And it's gorgeous.

So how long have you been farming here?

Well, this, we're roughly about six generations here, from early 1900s.

Wow, and how many acres do you have here?

RICHARD KANE: Just over 700, of which about 150 acres we grow for oilseed.

And is Ulster good for growing rapeseed?

This is-- we're about 10 feet above sea level here.

And years ago, we're talking maybe 300 to 400 years, it was maybe underwater.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

RICHARD KANE: So it's all reclaimed ground.

It's silty, nice ground.

We reckon it helps the-- the flavor of the oils.

Many people probably don't know that it comes from this beautiful plant, but it must be the seeds, is it?

RICHARD KANE: Basically, the flowers just, they turn into the pods.

And then they'll slowly fill up, just like a miniature pea.

And that's where the oil comes from.

It-- it ends up at 45% oil.

PAUL RANKIN: It's quite cute, actually.

So, Leona, can you show me how it's made?

- Yeah, let's go.

- Yeah.

- I'll show you now.

- See you later, Richard.

All right.

[gentle music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ OK, Paul, so this is basically our story of how we bottle and process all our products.

PAUL RANKIN: Mm-hmm.

LEONA KANE: Richard, he sows it all.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

LEONA KANE: Roughly, about five acres an hour.

The growing of it, then, we were in the fields, and we actually showed you how it grows.

Mm-hmm.

LEONA KANE: This is what it looks like just before Richard harvests it.

So it's quite dry.

It's very brittle.

You can hear the seeds inside there-- PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, yeah, you hear them rattling about.

The combine basically breaks that down, takes it out of the pods, and the byproduct of this is straw.

- Yeah.

So it goes for bedding for cattle.

PAUL RANKIN: Brilliant.

LEONA KANE: The seeds are tiny black seeds.

They nearly look like peppercorns.

They're very small.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, yeah, they're tiny things, aren't they?

LEONA KANE: But we actually dry with gas, rather than diesel.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And we have to make sure it's dried to the right moisture.

- Yeah.

- If it's not, it'll go off.

Yeah.

And that's a big problem for us.

You'll see, then, the drying sheds.

This is what it looks like in the drying sheds.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

LEONA KANE: We then press it.

PAUL RANKIN: And it's a cold press?

LEONA KANE: Cold pressed.

We only do one press, and it's one single variety seed, and grown in one type of soil.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

LEONA KANE: This is our byproduct.

It goes for high protein animal feed.

PAUL RANKIN: Wow.

You can have a try of it, if you want.

It's completely natural.

- It's not bad, actually!

- You can have it for your-- It's pretty good, though.

--have it for your breakfast, if you want.

Yeah, you could almost sprinkle that over porridge and stuff.

- You could.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, yeah.

LEONA KANE: This is better for you.

So this is our end product.

And this is our rapeseed oil that we make.

Yeah, so how do you get it in the bowl?

So I'm going to show you now.

So we'll go and get our whites on, and we'll see how it's done-- Oh, you're going to get me glammed up, are you?

We are.

This is the pretty bit.

[bright music] ♪ ♪ OK, Paul, so this is where we bottle our oil.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

LEONA KANE: And it's a very simple process.

This is our 500 mLs, and we're doing our liquid gold now.

Now if we were doing infusions, we would actually be infusing them before we do all this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The infusions are all done naturally as well.

We have basil, rosemary, garlic, chili, lemon-- PAUL RANKIN: Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

LEONA KANE: We have truffles.

We have everything ongoing.

PAUL RANKIN: It looks amazing coming into the bottle like that.

LEONA KANE: So we take it off, and we cap it.

[mechanical whirring] PAUL RANKIN: It really is a hands-on industry, this.

LEONA KANE: It is.

From that, then we label it.

And everything is done by hand.

So that's it labeled.

So now, we're in for a treat.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

I'm going to let you try a couple of my favorites.

OK.

We have our liquid gold.

This is our pure cold-pressed oil.

Rapeseed oil has 10 times more omega-3 than olive oil and half saturated fat-- Mm-hmm.

But it also has omega-6 and 9 that olive oil doesn't have.

PAUL RANKIN: Yeah.

So I keep telling everybody, olive oil is good for you, but rapeseed oil is healthier again.

What I like about yours is it's got a lighter taste than almost any other rapeseed oil.

And it doesn't have that grassiness that I find unpleasant sometimes.

- Yeah.

- That's delicious.

- Thank you.

Now, the black truffle is another favorite of mine.

And we supply a lot of chefs.

And they love it as well.

Proper black truffle flavor.

It is, yeah.

That is-- ooh, that one's nice.

Good.

My favorite's the basil.

I love basil for pizzas, pastas, for Bolognese, or for your salad.

Ooh, good basil flavor because you don't often get it like that, coming through, like that.

So that's dried herbs you use in that basil oil?

It's dried.

We use dried because if we used fresh, it would actually go off.

And what some people do is they actually put it in the fridge.

Mm-hmm.

But that's one of the worst things you can do for oil.

If you store it really, really cold, it goes off eventually.

No, it doesn't.

It so does.

That's funny.

I never knew that.

And you're a chef, all this time, and you didn't know it?

I'm a dumb chef, like, you know?

Irish.

No, not at all.

I have a treat for you.

This is a new one that we launched for chefs in Dubai.

And it's 23 karat gold, so-- You're making this up.

No, so there was the original gold that was found in our farm.

[laughs] But this is actual 23 karat gold that we made.

James is going to love this!

You can eat it, yeah?

Yes, you're going to try it.

Oh, that's-- I can't wait to try this one.

Well, it's got lots of gold in it.

Shake it up again.

LEONA KANE: [laughs] I do get asked, all the time, can you save the gold out of it, but.

PAUL RANKIN: Would look amazing on a black plate, that, where you could see it shining.

Wow!

So you're eating real gold-- You certainly can't taste it.

There's not a strong taste from it, but I think the best quote I've ever got was from Prince Charles, whenever he said you could be gold-plated from the inside out, which I thought was brilliant.

[laughs] Leona, you and your liquid gold are doing Northern Ireland proud.

Thank you very much.

LEONA KANE: Thank you very much.

[bright music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And a good oil makes great mayonnaise.

And what goes with amazing mayo?

Crab cakes, of course.

I'm going to do a great dish.

It says a lot about the produce of Northern Ireland, really.

I'm going to do some wonderful crab cakes with a rapeseed oil mayonnaise.

We've got this amazing rapeseed oil here, with this gold leaf in it.

It's a first for me to use, but I'm going to use it to make this simple little dressing that, trust me, once you learn how to make mayonnaise, you'll never really go back.

And for this, we need about two to three egg yolks.

I'm going to add just a little bit of mustard.

French mustard is ideal.

A touch of vinegar is what you want.

You can use vinegar or lemon juice.

I'm going to put some lemon juice in to flavor this at the end.

And then start to whisk this up.

When you only want a small amount-- and I'm only going to create probably two, three portions of crab cakes-- making it by hand is just as quick, to be honest.

Then you can pour in the oil.

Now I'm going to use some of this amazing rapeseed oil.

The color of this is fantastic with this gold leaf in it.

I've never actually used this before.

I've used gold leaf in cooking before, particularly when I was training as a young kid in London.

We used to do two strawberries, one of them wrapped in gold leaf.

12 quid, back then, for two strawberries.

We gradually, gradually, gradually pour the oil onto the yolks.

Traditionally, mayonnaise would be made with veg oil, done exactly the same way.

And once you master this sort of simple dressing, you can make other dressings, too.

Salad cream is made exactly the same way as I'm doing here.

But instead of using raw egg yolks, it's done with hard-boiled egg yolks, whisked up with vinegar and then finished off with some cream.

And you can see, the mixture, after only a couple of minutes of whisking, starts to thicken up.

Now, the more oil you add, the thicker it gets.

Using a whisk is more satisfying, I think, doing this by hand.

You can, of course, do this in a machine, if you want.

Some salt.

And some pepper.

What I'm going to do is just leave this in the fridge, just to firm up, a little bit.

Meanwhile, turn my attention to the crab cakes.

Classic, really, Irish ingredients-- potato, spring onion, a little bit of chives for a touch of flavor, and some fantastic crab.

So the first thing I'm going to do is take our spring onions for this and slice them up.

So we've got our spring onions.

That can go into our potatoes.

And we do the same with our chives.

[bright music] ♪ ♪ And then we've got this wonderful fresh white crab meat.

Now, whenever you're doing any fish cakes or crab cakes, it's got to be equal quantities, almost, potato to fish or crab.

And then to bind it all together, you can take an egg yolk.

Throw that in.

Plenty of black pepper.

Some salt.

And I like to add just a little bit of lemon juice.

And get your hands in.

The problem is, if you do this in a machine, everything just breaks up, and the potatoes can go a little bit waxy.

A lot of the moisture can come out the potatoes as well.

Have a quick bit of a taste.

Pretty good.

And then just with a little bit of flour on your hands, we can then scoop some of this mixture up and mold it up into these little cakes.

Now, remember, everything, really, apart from the spring onion and the chives-- the potatoes and the crab, of course, are cooked.

All you're really doing is just warming this through.

So bear that in mind when you mold them and not make them too thick.

Just like that, I find.

Now, you can store these in the fridge.

You can even freeze these, if you wanted to, and then thaw them out and cook them.

Because the cooking of it is really simple.

You just want a hot pan on the stove, a little bit of oil.

I'm going to use a little bit of olive oil, for this one.

You could, of course, use rapeseed oil.

Just simply pan fry these.

They're going to take about two to three minutes, until they're nice and golden brown, on one side.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ While they're cooking, we can just finish off this dressing, really, just with a squeeze of lemon juice in there.

And that's it.

You've seasoned it.

You don't need anything else.

And all I'm going to do is just serve this with a bit of watercress.

I love the pepperiness of watercress.

It's kind of like the-- I don't know, the British equivalent to rocket, really.

All we do now, turn these off.

And pop one on there.

Another one.

A nice few leaves of wonderful watercress.

Really is lovely, this stuff.

And then, of course, a nice dollop of rapeseed oil mayonnaise.

And that's it, really.

You can serve it with a wedge of lemon, if you wanted to.

But I love it like it is.

It's simple, but it's really tasty.

[gentle music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): A fitting tribute to the Kane family and their fields of gold.

♪ ♪ I'm on a Northern Irish adventure with my mate Paul Rankin.

Whoa!

I like it.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So far, I've cooked on the Causeway.

My work here is done.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Paul has visited a local farm.

And it's gorgeous.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And now, I've got something up my sleeve that's going to be a first for both of us.

Now, I know you think you know Ireland.

Yeah.

I'm going to take you for a little surprise.

Am I being kidnapped?

[laughs] This is just a bit of fun.

That's what it feels like.

It's just a bit of fun because I know you're competitive.

PAUL RANKIN: Uh-huh.

I bet you've been practicing, whatever this is-- No, I didn't.

This could be a bit of fun.

Are you an expert in this, whatever it-- No, I'm not.

No, definitely, definitely not.

PAUL RANKIN: Have you done it before?

No, I'm never likely to do it again, either.

Ah.

[celtic music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Yep, you guessed it.

Well, maybe you didn't.

We're going hovercrafting.

Do you know what?

You look remarkably good in that, that outfit.

- Aye, 'cause I'm speedy.

- Eh?

- Because I'm speedy-- - You do, you do.

I just look like it's-- with a-- sort of on a midlife crisis, really, about to wear Lycra.

[laughs] Nothing against those sort of people.

Well, I have really, but anyway-- - Yeah.

- --may the best man win.

Hey, I'm not shaking hands, man.

This is serious.

This is serious.

You're going down, man.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's a good job neither of us are competitive Yeah, right.

[groans] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): How hard can this be?

The things I do.

There he is, that James Martin.

I'm going to take him.

It's like a bathtub.

♪ ♪ [ignitions turning] ♪ ♪ Yeah.

Oh.

[hovercrafts accelerating] ♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): A little slower than I imagined, but the race is on.

[energetic music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Champion!

[engine rumbles] [yell] [humming] It wasn't-- I nearly got you, though.

I nearly got you.

That's-- that's some dance.

JAMES MARTIN: Right.

I'll leave you to it.

He's happy as Larry.

You need practice.

I'm going to keep practicing.

Don't worry.

[engine whirrs] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Ever gracious in victory, me, now, after all that exertion, I've got a champion cake in mind using some of my favorite ingredients.

Now, this is one dessert that the dog will appreciate-- a stout and chocolate cake.

It's just fabulous and really simple to make.

It's classed as an all-in-one cake, really, but the first thing we're going to do is melt the chocolate.

Now, the chocolate varies.

It's all to do with the percentage of cocoa solids in chocolate.

But a 70% cocoa solids is a good marker for dark chocolate.

That's going to sit into our little bowl over a pan of hot water, because I'm going to melt this.

You can do this in a microwave if you want, but I wouldn't advise melting chocolate in a microwave.

It can get too hot and it can burn.

In we go with the butter.

And then turn your attention to the stout.

Now, I call this an all-in-one cake mix.

It's kind of a similar mixture to what a sticky toffee pudding mixture is, really.

I mean, sticky toffee pudding uses dates, don't get me wrong, but I'm not very good at pouring beer so-- in fact, I'm pretty useless at pouring beer.

Look at the head on that thing.

I think I've got 300 mLs-ish [gentle music] ♪ ♪ Maybe a little bit less now.

But anyway, look, that's going to go in there.

Now, as I was saying, this is kind of similar, I think, to a sticky toffee pudding, i.e.

The mixture is hot.

So what you need to do is you need to heat all this mixture up.

Because the minute I start adding the flour to this, because I'm using self-raising flour, the cake will actually start to rise.

So I need to make sure that I've got everything ready.

The oven is set and the cake tin can be prepared.

But what you need to do is a little cartouche, a little disk, really, for this.

And then that sits in the bottom.

The best advice, really, is tuck it so it just fills over the edge of the circle.

So the mix just kind of sits in it.

It doesn't seep beyond it.

Now just as it starts to all melt, it'll look as if it's separated.

Don't worry about that.

That's just the stout in there early.

So once this is ready, turn the heat down, and then add our soft brown sugar.

Now, this is where you get a real depth of flavor to the cake.

Give that a quick mix.

And then what I like to do is crack the eggs into a bowl beforehand.

So make sure you've got them all ready.

Because at the minute I add the flour to this, the clock's ticking.

Change to a whisk and then really throw everything in.

[soft music] ♪ ♪ You can take this off the water now.

Now, quite quickly, this will start to come together.

And particularly when it's still warm, you'll actually see it start to rise.

If our esteemed, award-winning cameraman can get that close, see, look.

It's starting to bubble.

And this is the mixture starting to cook.

So straight away, we can pop it straight in the oven.

Now, set the oven quite low for this because of the size of the cake.

This is about 160, something like that, about 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

It wants to cook in there for about an hour.

♪ ♪ Now, once your cake is cooked, that is what we're looking for.

And we're going to top this with a lovely stout cream cheese.

And it's really simple to make.

First of all, we use cream cheese, a good dollop of that, a little bit of the remaining bit of stout.

The rest of it goes in you.

And then icing sugar.

And then whisk this up.

♪ ♪ You don't need to be too fancy with this.

You can take the entire lot now and dollop it on the top.

[energetic music] ♪ ♪ And then to finish, grated dark chocolate over the top.

And there you have it, a chocolate and stout cake.

But the best bit is cutting a wedge out of it.

It's lovely.

It's rich.

It's everything you want in a cake.

But I'm going to call this a grown-up cake.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): That's one delicious chocolate stout cake.

What could be better after beating your mate in a hovercraft race?

I'm on a tour of discovery around Northern Ireland's dramatic coastline.

But it's not just a road trip.

Earlier, I beat my travel companion, Paul Rankin, in a hovercraft race.

So while he gets in some much-needed practice laps, I've headed to Portrush, where I've jumped aboard yet another vessel, this time in search of one of my favorite fish.

[flute music] ♪ ♪ Just along from the Giant's Causeway is this place, Portrush.

It's home to some of the finest seafood and fish in the entire world.

And there's one I'm after particularly, and that's mackerel.

So I promised the crew I'd cook them something to eat, kind of.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): This coastline is simply stunning, and I'm told mackerel are plentiful here.

So time for a little fishing masterclass.

Mackerel really go after anything shiny, like these little hooks with tassels on it.

It's weighted.

And we're about, I don't know, 7, 8 meters deep, something like that.

So what you do is you allow this to just drop straight down to the bottom.

It's going down now.

The minute it hears a thud, thud, bang, and then bring it up.

And then up and down.

See, look.

There's obviously something there.

Something's on the line.

Now bring it in.

Look.

Now, I know this is TV land, and you probably think this is just messing about.

This has been in the water for about 20 seconds.

Fresh mackerel, look at that.

Lunch is sorted.

CREW: Hurray!

[festive music] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): The skipper is looking for the perfect place for me to cook, and he's chosen a stunning spot in the shadow of Dunluce Castle.

The only problem is, it's so rough and windy, even the seagulls are taking a beating.

So I'm going to attempt-- I say attempt-- to cook mackerel with grapefruit salad.

Wish me luck.

First thing I'm going to do is prepare our dressing for this.

So we've got a bowl here, and our dressing is kind of the way they're pickled, really, so follow me on this one.

Look, a bit of salt, some nice Irish sea salt.

The same quantity of sugar, caster sugar.

All right.

Bit of that.

A few bits of pink peppercorns in here for a bit of color.

You can use normal peppercorns if you want, but pink peppercorns, particularly in something like this, is great.

And then this is where it turns into a dressing and a pickle.

This isn't something that a fisherman's left behind.

This is vinegar, I'm assured.

I'm not going to taste it, just in case, but we're going to throw a little bit of the vinegar in.

Just bear with me again, on this one, look.

[laughs] Then we've got some ginger and we use some grated ginger.

Now, I got this from Japan, this ginger grater.

Now, you probably get one of these from a pharmacy.

They're good for your skin on your feet, these things, look.

And we mix this together.

Bit of dill.

Now you can use a bit of dill.

You can use a bit of the fennel.

But this is where you get this simple sort of dressing.

And it's this pickle/salad dressing which is going to be perfect with the mackerel.

But this really heat of ginger you get with a fresh ginger as well, particularly when you grate it like that.

So keep that to one side.

Next, we turn our attention to our fennel.

Now, for this one, we want to thinly slice it.

So I'll just move this fella out of the way.

And then we go and grab our fennel and ever so thinly slice it.

Now I'm going to try and get this as thin as possible.

It's quite difficult.

Like that.

Throw the fennel in.

Lovely.

Probably a little bit more.

Nice and thin like that.

And then we can utilize these little fronds as well.

A little bit of fennel.

And then grapefruit.

Now, this seemed like a great idea on land, but segmenting a grapefruit, you need to follow me on this one.

So come down.

Treat it like a football.

Like that.

And then you start, and you go all the way around the shape of the grapefruit.

And then in between, you get a really sharp knife, and you segment the grapefruit carefully by just carefully putting the knife in there like that.

And the segments just lift out.

Look.

Now, normally, I would keep going, but I'm probably going to lose my finger.

That's going to go in there, and that's your little salad.

Look at that.

Look at that bowl of loveliness.

Mmm!

And then-- this is great fennel.

It's fantastic when it's eaten fresh like that.

Now, I wouldn't put this on the table.

I'm going to leave it down on the floor.

So I'm not really bothered about seagulls.

Funnily enough, there isn't any seagulls because they're not stupid.

Look.

Beautiful, beautiful mackerel fresh as a daisy.

Now, when you're preparing mackerel, the easiest thing to do is, to be brutally honest with you, get somebody else to do it.

But mackerel has got two fillets.

What we do is just go underneath the gills and slide the knife along the back, holding the fish.

Again, sharp knife, ever so carefully just slice this like that.

And you can grab this nice little bit of mackerel, look.

And then carefully grab yourself a tray, which I just so happen to have.

And then a bit of oil.

Drizzle over the top.

Now, the way you cook it is with this-- blowtorch.

Trust me.

Use a metal tray when you're blowtorching this, not a plastic one.

Because the idea of the metal tray is you get this beautiful heat from it, which is now burning onto my hands because the heat's going up the tray.

But look, you get this lovely charred bit.

Don't worry about it curling.

Your finger would do that if I was blowtorching it as well.

Don't worry about that.

But look, you've got this fantastic bit of mackerel.

Now we can season it.

Touch of salt.

A little bit of black pepper.

And then we can plate this.

[grunts] [bright music] I'm just going to take our dressing, and I'm going to take a bit more of this ginger ever so slightly into our creme fraiche.

And then what we're going to do is just mix our ginger in the creme fraiche.

Now, it's not about me at this moment in time.

It's on here.

We do a little-- see what I did there?

Look.

You can grab a nice bit of fish.

♪ ♪ And then finally, we'll put our nice little bit of salad on here.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Take a look at that-- blowtorch mackerel with fennel and grapefruit salad.

It's certainly one way to find your sea legs.

It's not until you actually get out and see the coastline of this great country we live in, you really appreciate it far more.

It's absolutely beautiful and so different from region to region.

You know, here you've got the famous Giant's Causeway and you're literally only a stone's throw away from Scotland.

This ocean around here is so rich and so diverse in amazing seafood.

It made me fall in love with seafood.

It really, really, genuinely did.

It's a very, very special place.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And if you're wondering where Mr.

Rankin is-- [theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪