Me and my best mate, Jimmy, are back at our very own cafe,
here at the end of Southend Pier.
Who's hungry?
Yeah!
Because we're passionate about cooking up great food to
share with friends and family.
Lovely flavour.
That's delicious.
That's really, really good.
We've invited down a whole host of very special mates.
~ Hello! ~ ..to help out in the kitchen.
It's getting hot, it's getting hot, it's getting hot!
Because the weekends are for feasting.
Thank food it's Friday!
On tonight's menu...
The mighty ramen.
My bang-on trend Japanese noodle soup that's a celebration in a bowl.
When you're sad, it makes you happy.
When you're low, it makes you high. Absolutely delicious.
I'll show you how to make your own DIY rotisserie.
Basket, logs and a chicken rotating.
You've got to treat yourself.
You've got to do this.
And we're off on another food fight.
This time, we're saving abandoned crops from rotting in a field,
and bagging perfect fruit and veg for free.
We are talking about thousands upon thousands of tonnes of food.
Boxes and boxes which could feed a lot of people.
~ Crazy isn't it? ~ It is crazy.
Cup of tea for me, please, Kerryann.
Lending a hand in the kitchen is my old student, Kerryann.
~ Ah, here we go. ~ There's you tea, you old git.
Thank you. Thank you.
We've got a menu of amazing treats
for you to try this weekend.
And joining us for a cook-up, a Brit Award winner who's sold
over 3 million albums and 10 million singles.
Guys, it's Ellie Goulding!
Wow! Come and sit down. Lovely to see you.
~ How are you? ~ I'm good. How are you? ~ Good, good.
~ Sit down. Welcome to the caff. ~ This is awesome.
~ Well, thanks for coming down. ~ Thank you for having me.
~ We've been so excited to have you. ~ Aww.
Me and Jimmy are both fans. Kerryann's a big fan of yours.
~ Hello! ~ Kerryann works here with us. ~ Hi, hello!
She just tried to sing one of your songs but she did frankly...
~ Oh, you don't need to tell her that! ~ ..she let herself down.
She's great. But you're non-stop touring.
You're travelling around all over the place.
I've forgotten what it's like to not be tired.
But I can't really complain cos it's the best job in the world.
~ But you grew up in Hereford? ~ Yes.
So I mean, that must have been a wonderful childhood,
~ loads of orchards there. ~ Yeah, a lot of orchards.
It's famous for Hereford bull and cider.
~ What more do you need in life, really? ~ I know. Got everything!
~ You've got your beef, you got your cider. ~ I know.
If you were coming home from primary school or secondary
school, and you could have had any dinner, you know, your choice,
what would it have been, back in the day?
It was, it was proper comfort food like beans, chips, fish fingers.
All that kind of stuff.
I didn't eat very healthy when I was young at all.
I think as I got older I started to become more aware
of my diet and stuff.
Before I was vegetarian, I went through this phase of being really
interested in taxidermy and things that were deceased.
I love all that stuff like bones and skeletons
and I've got a bit of a dark side, so like,
I've got a new house and one room's just going to be entirely dedicated
~ to my dark side, all that kind of curiosity stuff. ~ You and me both.
Well, when I grew up as a kid,
I used to go round Jimmy's house, sort of like seven, eight years old,
and like, I'd go, "Where's Jimmy, Mrs Doherty?"
"Oh, he's in his bedroom."
I'd go in there, he'd be on the floor with a corkboard,
and he'd be opening out a mole and taking it apart and picking at it.
~ There'd be formaldehyde everywhere. ~ So we're quite similar then.
He was the geekiest best friend you could ever have.
Well listen, food must be a key part of your life, and I know that,
~ just recently, you've become sort of pretty much full-time vegan. ~ Yeah.
What was the sort of inspiration behind that?
I went to university and like, did all that stuff,
~ and ate whatever I wanted. ~ Junk? ~ Yeah, loads of junk.
Um, and then, yeah, I just had this like, another epiphany thing
and just completely stopped. Just cut meat out of my life
and I feel much happier and healthier.
And do you actually cook? Can you cook?
~ I try and cook. ~ So, be really honest. What's the kind of like, OK,
it's an Ellie Goulding special night.
You're rattling out little meal. What's happening?
What are you knocking out?
I do like making things like Thai curries
and I like making, like, I make like a Kumar chilli thing.
Actually, we're going to be doing some really exciting food with you
today and I hope you like it.
~ I've dedicated a recipe to you. ~ Really? ~ Inspired by you.
Wicked. I'm excited.
Um, OK. Well, guys, for the first feast of today,
we're going to do the most amazing ramen.
~ I have a vegan one for you. ~ Amazing, thanks.
And my meat one for all of these lovely people.
I promise you, going to fill you up with love.
As well as serving it up to Ellie and the diners,
I want to show you lot how to make it at home.
We are going to make the mighty ramen.
It's one of Japan's most treasured dishes.
Slow-cooked and packed with flavour.
And it's having a moment here in the UK.
We're talking about the most beautiful,
sort of nutrient-dense broth.
You know, something you can hold and makes you feel good,
gives you energy. When you're sad it makes you happy,
when you're low it makes you high.
It's just an incredible broth.
It's a truly indulgent weekend feast of soft noodles,
tender pork belly, rich, soy-marinated eggs,
vibrant greens, and punchy pickles.
All wrapped up in aromatic Asian flavours.
And it all starts here, with some humble bones.
Step one, the broth.
In a pan, fry off a handful of pork bones, eight chicken wings,
two thumb-sized pieces of ginger and five cloves of garlic,
in a little drizzle of sesame oil.
You know, I don't just want a blonde, kind of horrible old broth.
I want it have attitude, colour, caramelisation.
So we're going to roast these off
and one other thing I want you to think about is, you know,
you can have any meat in your finished broth, OK?
You can have mixed meats.
I've chosen to go with pork belly, right,
but I'm already starting to think about garnishes.
Remember, ramen is the ultimate broth with the ultimate pimpage
and garnishes, right?
So, I want some crunchy bits of bashed-up cracklings,
and we love cracklings.
So I've just rubbed this pork skin with a little sesame oil,
and that's going to get roasted at the same time as these bones,
and then I'll show you the next bit.
Every good stock or broth starts with roasted bones.
Pop in the oven for 45 minutes at 200 Celsius
and just let it do its thing.
Hot pan coming through!
OK. So, we have nice piece of crackling.
Look at that.
When it's smashed up, seasoned up,
that's a brilliant little sprinkle to go with our lovely ramen.
So that goes to one side. Have a look in here.
I mean, listen to it.
Chicken wings have got crispy.
Actually, if you can pull that meat out, the bones just fall out
already, so it's just ready to give all its flavour over.
And that's going to really get the base happening beautifully.
Now, let's get that on a hob.
And we want to get it into sort of broth-making territory now.
Add one tablespoon of miso paste,
and top it off with three litres of water.
Then add the pork belly that you removed the skin from.
Now I'm just going to simmer this broth for hours and hours and hours,
and that's going to bring out all the flavour.
It's going to give gorgeous colour. I don't want to boil it.
I want to really have a gentle, gentle heat.
So, onto the fire we go.
Give me one sec and I'll be back.
Now, leave to simmer for four hours. You can't rush this.
It's going to be an incredible,
flavour-packed base for the rest of the ramen.
And that's what weekends are all about,
taking your time to create amazing feasts.
So, over here, I'm actually going to cook some lovely soy-marinated eggs.
These eggs are a traditional accompaniment to ramen.
Tasty and beautiful.
They're sweet and salty on the outside, and rich
and golden on the inside, adding colour and flavour to the ramen.
This is eggs on another level, like you ain't tasted before.
Start by soft-boiling six large eggs for four to five minutes.
Then drain and set to one side to cool while you make your marinade.
I'm going to put in 200ml of low-salt soy sauce.
Then I'm going to put a lovely fragrant spice, star anise.
I'm going to put in some mirin.
It's sweet, kind of Japanese wine, condiment.
I've got some garlic here and then I've got some ginger.
Don't even bother peeling it.
So in with the ginger.
What's nice, if you taste this...
Oh! Big flavour.
Explosive flavour.
Once the marinade has reached a boil, take it off the heat
and allow to cool while you peel your eggs.
Then put it all into a Ziploc plastic bag.
Absolutely gorgeous, and just wind it up like this.
Put it in the fridge.
The longer you keep it in it, the stronger the marinade and flavour.
So, your eggs are marinating. Your pork and broth is almost there.
Time for the accompaniments that really make this dish.
Let's talk about all the things that we use to make a ramen really
colourful and fun, and kind of unique to you as well.
It's all the added extras that make a ramen so satisfying.
Contrasting colours,
flavours and textures, which make this soup just sing.
I'm mixing traditional Japanese accompaniments like seaweed
with some new twists like fiery kimchi,
a fermented Korean cabbage that's absolutely delicious.
You can buy it in the supermarkets.
You don't have to be fermenting big barrels of, you know, cabbage.
You don't have to do that. The stuff you can buy is great.
I've also got some fresh bean sprouts
and some cooked soba noodles.
We've got steamed greens here.
I don't need to tell you how to steam greens.
Steam it, and with the spinach, just wring it out, super tight,
until you've got a dense ball of goodness like that.
Finally, the all-important garnishes.
I've got the crumbled pork crackling,
toasted sesame seeds, sliced chillies, spring onions and lime.
So after four hours of simmering the pork and broth,
you're ready to assemble your ramen.
The pork is nice and tender
and you can just tell by sort of pinching it.
And if it's kind of coming away from the bone, we're laughing.
So let's just get that pork out.
Look at that.
Tender meat, just falling off the bone.
That's going to be a joy to eat. So let's plate it up.
Let's go in with our noodles here.
And then let's get a nice slice of that gorgeous pork on top.
Look at this.
Whoa!
Stack a warm bowl with your veggies, noodles and pork
and top it all off with that beautiful steaming broth.
Nice big ladles of the hot broth,
and I'm going to pour that primarily over the noodles and the meat.
Now for the traditional soy-marinated eggs.
So just cut through...
and look there, guys.
A lovely, soft-boiled egg. Really, really nice.
So guys, I'm on a homeward straight now.
Chilli and stuff going on. The lovely pork cracklings.
Common sense tells you that's going to taste absolutely gorgeous.
And that, my friends, is something different for the weekend.
It's so worth all that love, care and attention.
Every mouthful is different.
From the rich soy-marinated eggs and the fresh greens,
to the soft, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly and crunchy cracklings.
It all comes together with that delicious flavour-packed broth.
Let's have a little try. Let's just pull it apart.
Tender meat, that just wants to fall apart. Look at that.
Gorgeous. And there's no right or wrong way to eat it.
Noodles...
crunchy bits...
Absolutely delicious.
Ramen. Good for the soul,
good for the taste buds
and very good for you.
Who's hungry out there?
Yeah!
~ Could you pass some out? ~ Yeah. ~ There we go.
~ There you go. ~ Thank you.
I like that. It's real nice.
~ I'm going to go for an egg. ~ Go for an egg.
Mmm.
This looks amazing.
I've made your ramen out of the most amazing dried mushrooms
and they give you the most incredible broths.
There you go.
Miss Goulding, that one's for you.
Thank you so much.
This is awesome. Really good.
I want to eat the whole thing but I feel like we've got to move on.
~ Well, can you hold yourself back? ~ Just do it!
Because, you're actually here, not just to eat,
although you will eat again.
Erm, you've got to cook for everyone in this cafe.
So what are you going to cook? What's your dish?
Er, well, I'm going to cook a vegan burger.
Why?
Because I really miss eating junk food!
I think people associate being vegan with just eating salads
~ and vegetables. ~ Yeah. ~ Yep.
But that's not the case.
Healthier versions of fast food favourites
are a hot global food trend,
being dished up at top celebrity hang-outs in LA,
New York and London.
And I've had a look around and I've developed what I think is
a really delicious, healthy veggie burger.
I'm calling it an Ellie Burger, right?
I love it. I hope you're going to love it.
It's full of the good stuff but it still feels naughty.
~ Wicked. I'm excited. ~ Are you ready for it?
~ I'm ready. ~ Come on then, tiger.
Next, we're getting medieval on waste crops.
Can we solve a modern problem with an ancient tradition?
What do you know about gleaning?
~ Gleaning? ~ Gleaning.
Sounds a bit kinky, Jim.
And how will Ellie shape up in the kitchen?
Oh, no, mine's fallen apart! No!
Yeah... maybe not that one.
Here at our caff on Southend pier,
we're cooking up a menu packed full of feasts
for a seriously tasty weekend.
Everyone's ramen all right?
Yeah!
We've got loads more, so pace yourself.
And superstar singer Ellie Goulding
is in the kitchen making today's special -
her favourite fast food fix, a veggie burger.
OK, Ellie Goulding, er, so this is the Ellie Burger.
Wicked, I'm excited.
A naughty burger is the dish that Ellie misses most of all
since turning vegan.
So I've devised her a veggie version that's juicy, vibrant
and packed with flavour and colour.
You want that kind of junkie,
naughty sort of burger vibe going on.
~ Obviously, there's no meat in the equation... ~ Yeah.
.. but we still want it to be just finger-licking, like, gorgeous.
~ Yeah. ~ A thing you've got to attack.
First up, we've got really nutritious, incredible things
that are in your freezer. So even if you go away for three months,
~ you can come back and knock this out. ~ Yeah.
~ Sweetcorn... ~ Start - yeah, got some sweetcorn.
200g, frozen. Peas, 200g, frozen.
~ Broad beans, 200g. ~ Cool.
So we can remember that, yeah?
~ Yeah. ~ Very, very simple.
Add a heaped tablespoon of flour and give it some punch with
a teaspoon of cayenne, a teaspoon of cumin and a bunch of coriander.
And all I'm going to do is wazz it up.
~ It's that little bit of flour and the temperature... ~ Yeah.
.. that makes it kind of glue together.
As you can see, there's only nice things going in here.
Add a tablespoon each of sunflower and sesame seeds
and we're ready to shape the burger patties.
Think snowballs when you're a kid, like that.
So just roll it in that flour and just sort of hug it, just pretty...
Why is yours so good?
~ Well - obvious. ~ I was good at mud pies when I was a kid.
Oh, no, mine's fallen apart. No!
I don't even want to move that now, cos that's perfect.
That's fine, that is.
Ooh, can we just...
Yeah, maybe not that one, OK?
But good job. Apart from that, good job.
Aah!
Just really squeeze it together. Yeah, be tough.
~ OK, that's a bit better. ~ OK.
That's it. A little bit of brute force does help.
So, darling, are you all right to make that recipe
like, four or five times?
I've got more stuff here.
~ Yeah, I'll give it a go. ~ Do you remember the recipe?
~ 200... ~ All that stuff.
200 of all of this and then a little teaspoon of these things.
~ Lovely. ~ That'll do.
Do you think they're ready for your food?
~ Er, probably not. ~ OK. Well, good luck.
What would he do - that?
Was there anything else? I don't think so.
Aah!
Everyone, Ellie's cooking now.
While Ellie cracks on in the kitchen,
we're off on another food fight.
We're heading to Norfolk,
to see if an old English custom could solve
a very modern food waste problem.
Here we are, on our way, on another little adventure.
~ I know, I'm so excited, Jim. ~ It's great.
When you look out on the countryside out here, it seems
~ a wonderful scene of serenity, doesn't it, right? ~ Yeah.
And farmers are really good at what they do, producing food.
But sometimes Mother Nature can be harsh
and sometimes she can be so kind and bless you with a really good season.
If a farmer grows too much, he has a surplus he can't sell.
Or if he doesn't grow enough, a supermarket might cancel his order altogether.
Both extremes can lead to fields full of waste crops.
~ He might have 50 tonnes... ~ Yeah.
.. so often what happens, it'll get ploughed back into the soil
as green manure.
Another problem is that the economics of modern farming are so tough,
farmers must expand to survive.
But bigger farms mean bigger machines
which can leave behind a small percentage of the crop.
You might say, "Well, why not just harvest the rest
"because it's sitting in a field?"
But the margins are so tight for commodities.
So the farmer has to weigh up,
it's not really worth my while to harvest it.
Altogether, many thousands of tonnes of perfectly good fruit and vegetables
go to waste on farms every year.
But I reckon an age-old tradition could offer the answer.
~ What do you know about gleaning? ~ Gleaning?
~ Gleaning. ~ Sounds a bit kinky, Jim.
Well, it's not kinky.
Cos gleaning, what used to happen, once the farmer had taken
the crop that he needed, whatever was left over,
he would say to the community, "Right, come along, help yourself.
"Pick what you want.
"As long as you get the field nice and clean for me,
"take the crop away, it's yours."
Gleaning was practised in the UK
from the Middle Ages right up to the 1950s.
It was a year-round, practical way
of making sure everyone in the community had enough to eat.
There's two good things about gleaning, right?
One, it clears up a problem that would be waste.
Also, it gets the community on the farm, picking this stuff
and I think that's really important,
where a community understands where its food comes from.
We reckon a gleaning revival could be an ancient solution
to a very modern food waste problem.
But there's only one way to find out and that's down at the farm.
Woo-hoo! Hello!
Hello!
James and Jess own a 420-acre farm
and are slap-bang in the middle of their harvest.
~ Anybody, cup of tea? ~ Oh, yes, please.
So, guys, tell us about the farm.
What's your problem? What crops are going to waste?
Our main problem is with onions at this time of year.
When we harvest them and lift them, we try and put them into little rows
so these harvesters can come and pick them up
and what happens is they roll off into the rows
and then we lose a certain amount of crops.
You say some left over. What are we talking about?
Out of a field of maybe 100 tonnes of onions,
we'll leave two tonne behind. So 2, 3%.
That's still a lot of onions.
A lot of people would say, "Why not just go back
"and pick them up on the tractor?"
Well, you can't pick them up from the tractor. You need to do it by hand.
And effectively someone by hand is quite an expensive piece of labour.
You're working on a very small margin, aren't you?
Yeah, and also two tonnes of onions, an onion's worth £100 a tonne,
so it's just not financially viable to send labour into a field to pick it up.
It's, it's - labour's very expensive.
Onions are relatively cheap.
So therefore we just can't afford to do it.
How does it make you feel when you see those crops just sitting there?
Being wasteful is not what any farmer wants to be.
Now, we think we've got a solution to your problem - gleaning.
It's a great situation where people turn up
and they will make the most of your excess crop.
We haven't tried it, but, no, we'd be interested.
With James and Jess on board,
I need to get out to the fields to see the scale of the glean.
~ Thank you for the tea. ~ You're welcome.
I'll clean up, boy, don't worry.
You trot off.
James and Jess have 20 acres of onions and harvest 400 tonnes a year.
Getting your onions out of the ground
isn't as simple as walking along - one, two, three, four.
There's a number of processes that you have to go through
~ to harvest the onions, right? ~ Indeed, yeah.
~ You've got to cut the tops, OK? ~ Yeah.
And then you've got to lift them up.
Yeah, not too deep cos you don't want to lift too much soil cos that just wastes energy.
~ Pile them together. ~ Pile them together, yeah.
~ And then finally, with the tractor and harvester... ~ Lift them up and put them into a trailer.
The process of lifting up the onions,
~ you're filtering out all the bits you don't want. ~ Exactly.
~ So all the soil and the stones... ~ Yeah, yeah.
.. fall back through. But then so do some of the smaller onions.
Exactly right, yeah. These ones here are perfectly good onions
that we then drive over and, you know, squish, or they can get...
Oh, yeah, look, you can see underneath. You've really
~ pushed them into the soil, haven't you? ~ Deep down, yeah.
~ The more you dig around. Look at these! ~ The more you dig, the more you find.
The figures you're talking about, when you say, oh, it's 1%, 2% wastage.
~ A lot of people think, "Oh, well, that doesn't matter really, does it?" ~ Yeah.
But when you think of this field, you're talking tonnes of onions.
You are, yeah, boxes and boxes, which could feed a lot of people.
~ Yeah, exactly right. ~ Crazy, isn't it?
It is crazy.
And it's not just modern machines that can create waste.
The unpredictable nature of farming means that there are several
reasons why a farmer may end up with an excess of crop left in the field.
Farming is almost like playing Russian roulette sometimes.
You're guessing when you plant your crop who's going to buy it.
You're guessing on the weather.
And as a producer you never want to under-produce
cos you've got to have stuff to sell.
So you want to slightly edge over the line.
You're always, yeah, you're always concerned, you overestimate.
~ But sometimes it goes against you. ~ Yeah.
~ And no matter what you do, good weather produces a bumper crop. ~ Yeah.
Your contract might fall through.
~ Any of these reasons could end up with a glut. ~ Yeah.
So to avoid all these unharvested onions going to waste,
we need to see if we can resurrect the old tradition of gleaning
and get this field cleared.
Years ago, farmers around here, around the country,
would have relied on the community to come in and pick up the waste.
All the people living round here, if you could suddenly say,
"Listen, guys, er, good news.
~ "Load of free food for you. Come and pick it up." ~ Yeah.
This is going to be a massive job and a bit of a backbreaker.
Jamie and I are going to have to recruit a small army of volunteers.
Hello, is that Will?
Hi, is that Michelle?
I've phoned to tell you about something we're doing in the village
at Hall Farm. We've got leftover onions -
would you like to come and help yourself?
Yep, yes, we will feed you - don't you worry.
We'll see you then. Cheers, love, that's great.
Bye-bye, bye.
If we can pull this off,
we could save tonnes of food from going to waste. But for now,
I've salvaged just a few onions for the diners to eat in the caff.
Guys, who's up for onion tart?
Yes, you greedy lot.
I've knocked up some caramelised onion tarte tatins
using some of James and Jess's delicious leftover onions.
Enjoy that.
That is lush.
Oh, that's the first time I've had a savoury tarte tatin.
Really nice.
~ Would you like to try some? ~ I would love to.
What's this sticky bit?
So basically it's, right, it's vinegar, sugar, olive oil...
Oh, my God, it's good!
~ You like that? ~ Absolutely delicious.
You've got to crack on. Got to feed these lot.
~ Can I just eat all day? ~ No, you've got to work. Come on.
I'll take this with me.
Next, my DIY build for the perfect roast chicken every time.
That bird has been on a flavour journey.
Oh, you've got to treat yourself. You've got to do this.
And has Ellie bitten off more than she can chew?
Honestly, I can't. It's too big!
I know.
Our Southend cafe is packed,
and our weekend feasts are going down a treat.
~ You still hungry? ~ Yeah!
We've already served up Jamie's hearty ramen,
and some seriously tasty onion tarts.
Oh, my God, it's good!
But the special is still to come.
Ellie Goulding's favourite junk food,
a dirty burger with a difference.
I've come up with a veggie recipe just for Ellie,
and I'm showing her how to make it.
But then, she's on her own. Flipping burgers for the whole caff.
We've made the patties, and now for the all-important added extras.
Normally, you'd have mayonnaise,
~ or a version of mayonnaise, in a burger. ~ Yeah.
We're not going there cos of the egg.
Um, so I kind of developed a sauce for you,
and it's really simple.
It's a riff on a hummus, but with a lot looser texture,
and loads more flavour.
To a blender, add two heaped tablespoons of chickpeas,
one teaspoon of sundried tomato paste,
one teaspoon of mustard and a tablespoon of ketchup.
And then just a little brandy, in the classic kind of cocktail sauce.
~ Awesome. ~ Just a dribble. ~ I'd put more in.
But, then, I want a kind of little hum of flavour.
Add two spring onions, half a clove of garlic, and season.
I've got a little bit of a problem with chillies.
~ Do you like spice? ~ I love spice. ~ Yeah, it's not going to be
super-hot, you know, but just a little bit of chilli to give it,
like, that nice background, um, kind of heat.
And then I'm going to whizz it up.
Just like a traditional mayo, I like to drizzle in plenty of extra
virgin olive oil, and finally, a good squeeze of lemon.
Take a good old-fashioned iceberg lettuce.
Hold this up, then give it a bang.
No, no.
Hold it up, hold it in your hand and then just slam it down.
Beautiful.
What I'm going to do is just roll this up and finely slice it.
Good chopping. I keep saying that.
~ How's your chopping, by the way? ~ Terrible.
No! God. I'm left handed as well.
~ Are you? ~ Yeah. ~ That changes everything.
So what would you...?
Stop. OK.
We need to do a little lesson on that. Stop. Jesus.
Look, these are worth a fortune.
Ooh, yeah, no, stop, stop. Ooh, God.
I don't - oh, yeah.
There you go.
Good job.
Next, in with the sauce and give it a good old toss around.
Lovely. And that just sits in it, so it kind of goes a little bit soggy.
~ And that'll go on the bun, your patty on top. ~ Nice.
While Ellie gets mixing,
I'm going to show you a DIY build to get the whole family in a spin.
We can all cook a chicken in our ovens at home
but roasting one on a rotisserie, in front of an open fire,
has got to be the ultimate way to enjoy a bird.
You've all seen those chickens, slowly turning,
basting in their own juices.
You can do the same thing, simply with some wire mesh, a barbecue
spit and motor, some aluminium sheets and a few fire bricks.
Right, no time to waste. Let's get started.
The beauty of this build is in its simplicity, and the bulk
of the work is just cutting and drilling, ready for assembly.
It's almost like a flat pack bit of furniture. Flat pack rotisserie.
You can pick this stuff up from your local hardware store.
Just make sure your mesh isn't galvanised.
You can start to see how it's going to work.
Basket, logs.
I'm going to have my spit there and a chicken rotating.
Grab yourself some wire,
and loop it through the holes to attach it all together.
So, here's the back of our basket.
Now, you want that to meet just at the end here.
Little bit of wire.
Twisty, twisty.
Snippy, snippy.
Attach two metal rods through the back,
to strengthen your fire basket.
Imagine those days in those big medieval courts,
and the centrepiece was roasting meat.
It was an art form. We took our roasting meats really seriously.
You know, employed young boys to turn the spit,
called spit jacks, and even a breed of dog that would almost
be in a hamster wheel, running along like that,
and that would turn the spit.
Imagine that poor dog, bred for that.
Bred for that, so all it could smell was roasting meat
and it's constantly running towards it and never getting there.
Right. There we go. That's all tied together.
Let's just pop the spit in. Wow.
Look how cool that looks.
Log basket in there. That's going to be the fire.
This is going to get scorching hot,
so make sure you put it on something that won't burn.
I'm using fire bricks.
Time to light the fire.
You can use charcoal,
but I want my chicken to be infused with delicious wood-smoked flavours.
That fire is well under way.
Time to have a clear up and get my chicken ready.
Don't want to do a lot to this,
because I want the chicken to do all the singing.
I'm going to get the lemon, put the half lemon right up there.
Bit of salt, pepper,
olive oil.
Oh, this is going to be so good.
Got to insert this.
Carefully slide the spit that comes with your rotisserie motor
straight through your chicken.
Then clamp it in place and truss up the legs and wings.
That's properly trussed up, that bird.
Do you know what?
I don't think Houdini would get out of there. Look at that.
Ready for the fire. Let's pop you on.
There we go. That's close enough for now.
With the spit in place, attach your barbecue motor and get roasting.
Away we go.
Now, as that chicken is turning, it's self-basting,
cos you're getting all the internal fats spinning out slowly
and basting the muscles inside, plus they're starting to come out
so they baste the outside. All those wonderful juices.
I don't want to miss any of them, so what I'm going to do
is put some spuds in a tray and end up with wonderful spuds as well.
Add a few sprigs of rosemary, some garlic,
a drizzle of olive oil and then shove the lot under the chicken.
This size bird will take about an hour and a half to cook.
And if you want a whole other level of flavour, you can
baste it with a herb brush, with all its own natural juices.
Lovely chicken, a few logs.
It's simple. It is so simple.
But this kind of roasting connects us with our ancestors.
We've been doing this kind of thing for thousands of years.
When the chicken is fully cooked,
carefully remove it from the rotisserie
and let it rest before carving.
Absolutely incredible.
Oh, it's got that lovely wood-fire smokiness to it.
Imagine your roast chicken at home. The best roast chicken out of
your oven. Amplify it by 100 times and that's what you're getting.
It smells incredible. I've got to taste it.
Oh! The meat just falls apart.
You know what? I can't wait any longer.
I've got to get it in my gob.
Oh!
That bird has been on a flavour journey.
All that rotating, the self-basting.
That breast is so tender and juicy.
Mm!
And the skin - oh, my Lord!
You've got to treat yourself.
You've got to do this.
Absolutely delicious. Just can't beat that juice, can you?
~ Going to make one of these at home, then? ~ Betcha!
That is just so tender and so juicy.
I've never had such good chicken before.
Right. Back to today's special - Ellie Goulding's veggie burger.
Patties made, sauce made. Now it's time for the trimmings.
A burger's not a burger without garnishes.
So we're slicing up some tomatoes and fresh basil.
Next up, avocado, and I've got a great tip to stop it going brown.
Just squeeze that lime juice over the top.
That'll stop it discolouring,
and you can keep it there for like an hour.
Ah, I'm learning a lot today.
Before Ellie starts knocking these out for the rest of the caff,
I'm going to show her how to make the perfect burger.
~ Look at that. Nice and crispy. ~ Amazing.
And you've got that kind of, you got that golden crunch,
and then, in here, you've got that kind of really fluoro green.
Such a good colour.
On the top of here,
we're going to add, just a little bit, not too much,
of that lovely salad base that you did.
Take a little bit of your lovely tomato, like that.
Then, so we push that down and then on top of that,
we're going to go to our avocado.
This is going to be, like, literally, the best burger ever.
~ A few naughty pickles. ~ Love pickles.
And then a little hit up of old school retro cress.
And, then, one crunchy onion ring.
~ Boom! And then last, but not least, ketchup on top. ~ Obviously.
~ So there's a lot to remember there, babes. ~ I know.
And, then, my friends, we build...
the Ellie Burger.
A nice little handful of cute stuff, and it's always important...
~ This is awesome. ~ .. just to give it a little bit of body.
Go on, give it a little push.
And then the only thing to do is to pick it up with two hands.
Don't cut it. Don't cut it in half.
And just do that thing of putting it in your gob and eating it.
You can do that in private. Get it in your gob, in that corner.
~ No one'll see you. ~ I can't do it. Honestly, I can't.
~ It's too big. ~ I know.
I'm hoping that you love it.
It is amazing, yeah.
Best burger I've ever had.
~ That's good. ~ More than a meat burger, back in the day.
Well, see all these lonely people in the audience?
Look. They look sad, don't you? Oh, hungry.
Have I got it round my mouth?
You've got to cook one for every single person here.
I must say, it is really, really, really good.
Yeah, well, don't just say it.
It's time to cook it.
Next, we're raiding a farmer's field,
all in the name of our food fight.
It's all freebies. It's a bit like a lock-in at the pub.
But it's just... onion-based.
And will Ellie's veggie burger come a cropper?
Ow!
It's fine.
It's late afternoon in the caff and there's one more weekend feast
to serve up -
today's special, Ellie's veggie burger.
So, three minutes each side.
Ellie, how are you doing?
Ow!
It's fine. Saved it! Yes!
Ellie's got loads more burgers to flip,
so it's time for food fight round two,
as we battle to find a solution to farm waste.
In the UK, many thousands of tons of fruit and veg
are left to rot in the field every year.
Supermarket price wars and pressures of modern farming
means it's not financially viable for farmers to harvest excess crops,
but we reckon there's an ancient way to rescue this food
before it goes to waste.
What used to happen, once the farmer had taken the crop that he needed,
whatever was left over, he would say to the community,
"Right, come along! Help yourself. Pick what you want.
"As long as you get the field nice and clean for me,
"take the crop away, it's yours."
We want to help fire up a gleaning revival
and we're starting in Norfolk.
Farmers Jess and James are in the middle of their harvest,
but margins are so tight they have tons of excess onions
they can't afford to pick up.
~ Hello! ~ Hello!
What a lovely group of people!
Nobody wants to see good food go to waste
and, thankfully, we've got a great response
from our community call-out.
Loads of volunteers have turned up for a glean.
So, guys, basically, anything in between these rows.
There's big ones, there's small ones, pick whatever you want,
straight in the basket, the little ones are the juicy ones,
so don't hold back, get gleaning!
Whoo! Glean away!
Gleaning's a win-win.
Farmers get their fields cleared and the locals get free onions,
but there's an even more significant outcome.
Gleaning can help get good food to those who need it.
Activist Tristram Stuart runs the Gleaning Network UK
and has joined us down on the farm for our onion grab.
This is quite a crop of onions
and it's the first time we've gleaned onions, actually.
It is unbelievable, isn't it, what goes to waste.
That's absolutely right and it's true of all produce.
There's waste in the supply chain.
And the Gleaning Network has been set up, principally,
to turn that big problem and another problem,
which is that there are lots of people
who can't afford a decent diet, and turn those two problems
into one beautiful solution.
We take volunteers to farms, gather everything that we can,
get it off to charities and get it out to those people that need it
and it's a great thing for farmers
because they don't want to see their food go to waste.
So, with a lot of farmers, they've got contracts to produce crops.
How do these contracts affect the farmers?
A farmer will not just produce
what they think they're going to be able to sell,
they often plant a bit more,
just in case either there's a bad harvest or the supermarket says,
"Actually, we want 120 tons," so people overplant,
so waste, if you like, is built into the system
and what we're trying to say is, "Look, let's try
"and make supermarkets more responsible,
"so that they don't treat farmers like that
"and then, wherever there is a glut, let's, at the very least,
~ "get it to charities." ~ Listen, we had better get on
because they're miles up there now.
I quite like this. It's a really, really nice feeling.
I mean, I grew up in the country
and the kind of local joke of any farmer in the country was,
"Oo-arr! Get off my land!"
You know, it's always about - "Get off my land,"
and, actually, this is lovely because it's about people, actually,
kind of, technically, helping with the harvest, but it's all freebies.
It's a bit like a lock-in at the pub, but it's just onion-based.
It's great.
There are far more onions here than we could ever get through,
but, thankfully, national food distribution charity FareShare
have joined us to take some of this great free produce off our hands
and get it to the people who need it.
We've got a network all across the country.
That means breakfast clubs, luncheon clubs, hostels, refuges.
How many people have you fed? How many meals have you created a year?
12 million meals.
You must be using a lot of waste, now, are you?
Well, you would think so, but we're only capturing 1.5% of surplus food
in the UK, so there is absolutely tons and tons more out there.
While Jimmy cracks on with the volunteers,
I'm going to do my bit in the kitchen.
Jess and I are going to create a feast of onion dishes
for our hungry gleaners.
So, onions, onions everywhere.
We've got onions with chives which are onions,
we've got onion gravy, onion sauces.
So, they're really super-sweet now.
I've just put some, like, thyme and rosemary and bay
just tied up in there. Have you made anything like this before?
Not such a big feast of just one ingredient before.
If you put this in the pan now.
Just sort of tuck it in and curl it around the edges
and any little waves, if it's not quite neat in this end,
just stretch it a little bit. It's perfect.
One more to go.
We're really working those onions, with delicious, crunchy onion rings,
pan-seared liver and onion gravy, and a rich French onion soup.
Great job there, Jess.
Look at this!
We've got all sorts.
Beautiful, aren't they?
OK, you lot, do you want to come over here? Let's see what you've got!
By the end of the afternoon,
team glean have hauled in an amazing bounty
and, after our volunteers have taken what they want,
all the rest will go to charity.
I've got a little announcement to say. It's that, already,
a ton of onions are making their way to FareShare already.
How amazing is that?
And that's down to all your hard work, so you all deserve a drink.
Here we go.
Right, guys, there's soup coming your way!
Feel free to gather round the fire!
Leftover crops will always be a reality of farming,
but it's great to see that, with a little hard graft,
our volunteers have rescued good food from going to waste.
Guys, tell me, have you had a good day?
~ We've had lots of fun. ~ Lots of fun.
~ Good. ~ Lots of fun. Lots of gleaning.
~ Are you a keen gleaner? ~ I am now.
What about the future? Would you come on one of these again?
~ Yeah, definitely. ~ Definitely.
~ So gleaning's a big hit? ~ Yeah.
James, Jess, get over here! Look, here you go! This is for you guys.
~ What do you reckon to this, then, mate? ~ Great, isn't it?
~ It's fantastic. ~ What a great success, isn't it?
Everyone comes out of it with a good thing
and a smile on their face, so just fantastic.
~ Well, here's to gleaning, guys! ~ Gleaning! ~ Fantastic.
Hooray!
So, Jess, James, tell us, how does it feel
to see all the community turn up at the farm
and pick all those unwanted onions up?
~ It was a great experience, wasn't it? ~ It was incredible.
You know, having the community come and take part
in getting to know about agriculture and farming
and then being able to help people and take away some onions with them.
Would you guys do it again?
Yeah, definitely, we've got one booked for two weeks' time,
so we've got them coming in.
We're going to have volunteers come in the same way
and do potatoes and onions together.
I think what's really amazing about what you guys have done
is you're actually networking, making things simple.
The purpose of the Gleaning Network is to give that confidence
to farmers that we are well-organised,
that it is all under insurance, the health and safety will be observed.
Once a farmer has had us once,
they're willing to have us back again and again and again
because they see it's a great day out for people,
learning about farming, but it's also a way of putting that food
that would otherwise go to waste to a really good purpose -
feeding people who really need it.
How do other communities around the country get involved?
People can get in touch, whether they're farmers,
whether they're volunteers, whether they can help with logistics
in any way whatsoever, or, indeed, if they're an organisation
that needs that food to feed some of their hungry clients,
and the more farmers that get signed up,
the more volunteers that get signed up,
the more we can help people with food poverty and waste reduction.
~ I love that. ~ Brilliant. ~ Eat your way out of the problem. ~ Exactly.
Well, look, we really enjoyed our time at your farm
and it makes so much sense what you're doing.
Fantastic organisation. OK, Ellie!
~ Yo! ~ Mate, look at this! ~ It's a sea of burgers, Ellie!
You have done an incredible job! Are you proud of yourself?
~ I am pretty proud, yeah. ~ No stress?
They look amazing and completely guilt-free. Well, not really, but...
~ Brilliant. Great. ~ Yeah, I got it lined up. ~ Well done, darling.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, The Ellie Burger!
Oh, wow!
Oh, wow! That is so tasty.
Who needs beef?
So, Ellie, you've done an amazing job. How do you feel?
All those punters out there are eating your burger.
~ I feel very happy and they look happy, as well. ~ They do, don't they?
They're eating really good...
I know, you know, they're burgers,
~ but they're still relatively healthy-ish. ~ Yeah.
You know, you can tell they're happy because it all goes a bit quiet.
~ Yeah. ~ The talking stops, doesn't it? ~ Yeah.
So, guys, The Ellie Burger!
We've had a great day at the caff
serving up a trio of indulgent weekend feasts.
My steaming ramen, Jimmy's home-made rotisserie chicken
and Ellie Goulding's veggie burger.
If you want to join the feast,
you can get the recipes and more at...
Next time on Friday Night Feast...
Cor!
..I'll be serving up a big-flavoured melt-in-your-mouth
slow-cooked chilli.
You know that this is going to be the antidote
that just makes you happy.
I'll show you how to make authentic Chinese crispy duck
from an old barbecue.
Look at these beauties!
We're heading to the coast to prove there's more to great fish
than plastic-wrapped fillets.
That... is delicious.
~ And Hollywood actor Michael Sheen... ~ Hello!
..is getting back to his Welsh roots with an amazing lamb stew.
This is an emotional dish for me. I might shed a tear.