Saturday Kitchen 5.5

(by susie)

This week in the Saturday Kitchen studio we had masters of their craft Nick Nairn and Richard Bertinet – not to mention actor Stephen Mangan and host James Martin – and I was dispatched to Hampton to juice the show up with some delicious wines.

First up, Nick cooked a vibrantly flavoured dish of halibut with langoustine, pickled cucumber salad, mint and yoghurt dressing – for which I chose the sprightly Taste the Difference Gruner Veltliner 2011 (£7.99, Sainsburys).

‘Inspired’ was Nick’s take on the match. ‘Absolutely delicious: really aromatic, but light enough – wouldn’t have gone to Austria as my first choice,’ he said.

James quite rightly pointed out that the Gruner worked primarily because the way the pickle and cucumber gave the dish a real zest and vegetal bite. ‘I love it,’ added Richard, saying it reminded him of a good Alsace wine (ever the proud Frenchman…)

Richard was making some delightful fruit tarts. To partner these I chose the Bonterra Muscat 2010 (£7.25, Waitrose) – an ideal accompaniment to fruit-based puds.

‘Perfect, fantastic,’ he commented, while James termed it a, ‘great combination’ and studio guest Stephen Mangan said it made him, ‘very happy.’

The show also featured archive material from Keith Floyd, Celebrity Masterchef and Rick Stein. The show also featured James’ recipes for:

• Black pudding fritters with a grilled pork chop, wilted spring greens and an apple and scrumpy sauce
• Chicken liver paté with figs, chutney and ciabatta toast
• Stuffed leg of lamb with a wild garlic and spinach butter with Jersey Royals, peas and mint sauce

You can find all the recipes for the show via the BBC Food site or this link. You can watch the wine clips from the show – by kind permission of Cactus TV/BBC1 – below.