Jamie at Home

English asparagus is world renown and with a short six week season, something to really treasure. Jamie has his very own patch and is keen to make the most of it, so he’s having asparagus for breakfast, lunch and dinner, starting off with boiled eggs and asparagus soldiers. He shows us three simple, different ways of cooking and dressing asparagus to celebrate these garden gems. We learn from Brian that Asparagus, one of only a handful of perennial vegetables in the garden, practically takes care of itself and can last for up to 20 years.

Jamie collects the eggs that his healthy hens have laid and heads for the kitchen. He makes a delicious homemade egg tagliatelle and an omelette salad with bresaola. Jamie shows us the reality of eating battery eggs and starts a few former battery hens off on their journey to a free-range life. The final recipe is a scrumptious meringue with hot pears and chocolate sauce.

Jamie has been invited on a local shoot and uses the opportunity to explore the world of delicious game birds. He spends some time with local gamekeeper, Geoff, who lets him take part in his partridge shoot and discusses how to get involved with the countryside. In an attempt to show us how versatile this under-used part of the culinary world can be, Jamie applies Asian, European and traditional British cooking principles to get the best out of each bird.

Most people think nothing of eating a chicken but what about a rabbit? Rabbits have been running around Jamie’s property eating the best food available – his organic veg, as well as food from the wider, natural habitat. Jamie makes some great game recipes starting with his very own Essex Fried Rabbit. Jamie’s local gamekeeper brings Jamie some venison and they have a chat about the free range nature of deer. Jamie then makes a Beautiful Game Ragu with Pearl Barley and a Pan-roasted venison with Potato and Celeriac Dauphinoise.

The quality of ingredients makes all the difference to a dish and lamb is no exception. Jamie gets a visit from Daphne, a Welsh sheep farmer, and they talk about some of the misconceptions of spring lamb, the differences between lamb, hogget and mutton and how good conditions for the animals ultimately makes the meat taste so much better. Jamie cooks up some delicious lamb recipes from the Welsh lamb that Daphne’s brought with her – crunchy grilled lamb kebabs and an incredible roasted shoulder of lamb.

Jamie devotes a whole programme to the humble, under-rated Leek. Not only are they a beautiful plant, they’re a versatile asset in the kitchen. Jamie makes delicious pappardelle with slow roasted leeks and a clever concertina squid with grilled leeks. We learn about ‘heeling in’, an old fashioned way to store your leeks and make them keep for longer.

A lack of mushrooms in Jamie’s garden inspires him to go search in his local forest, taking along his mentor and mushroom don, Gennaro Contaldo. Gennaro explains the perils and dangers as they find various mushrooms and have a cook-up in the forest making a delicious wild mushroom bruschetta. After climbing up, Gennaro to collect a bizarre tree-living mushroom at the roadside, Jamie’s back home to make a wild mushroom and venison stroganoff and the perfect mushroom Risotto.

Jamie gets hot, hot, hot in this episode as he tackles peppers and chillies. Jamie makes a delicious spicy pork goulash using a variety of ingredients from the capsicum family. After a tasting session sampling the hottest chilli in the world, Brian keeps his cool but Jamie’s starting to feel the heat. Roasted peppers stuffed with chilli, tomatoes and fresh herbs make a delicious snack and Jamie experiments with a way to smoke salmon on a domestic hob with a fresh, zingy salsa as the accompaniment.

Short ones, long ones, round ones, fat ones, yellow ones, green ones, striped ones, massive ones…Jamie’s talking about pumpkin & squash of course and his garden has a bumper crop of fascinating varieties, shapes, colours and textures. Jamie takes them to the kitchen and makes a mouth-watering warm winter salad of roast duck and pumpkin with an Asian-style dressing. Next up is a hearty winter pumpkin soup followed by some delicate pumpkin fairy cakes.

Having sadly been neglected for more exotic imports, rhubarb is finally having a resurgence. This is good news for the UK as historically we grow some of the best rhubarb in the world and Jamie’s lucky enough to have a few rhubarb plants in his own garden. Once a mothership stewed rhubarb has been created, you’re good to go and Jamie proves how versatile rhubarb can be with a super, speedy rhubarb fool, followed by hot and sour rhubarb with crispy pork and noodles. Next is a rhubarb and ginger soufflé with the genius addition of cold custard and finally, Jamie makes a luxurious, creamy rhubarb cocktail from a recipe devised by Tristan at Fifteen, Cornwall - now named, the Tristini.

A rather windswept Jamie explores the seemingly unlikely but bountiful world of winter salads in this episode. From Italian leaves to roots and hardy herbs, a quick trip round Jamie’s veg patch produces an army of colourful ingredients to make inspired winter salads. Safely back inside, Jamie goes Italian with his version of a delicious Bagna Cauda before making an unusual herb omelette salad. Brian turns mad scientist as we see him experimenting indoors. He’s been having fun sprouting every seed he can get his hands on. Jamie finds inspiration here to assemble a Japanese style tuna sashimi and sprouting herb salad with a fresh and surprising dressing – though he just can’t help using the extra virgin!

It may be November but the garden is still offering up some beautiful winter veg. Jamie explores what the garden has proffered and takes his finds to the kitchen to make a seasonal Winter Veg Coleslaw. More of the fabulous veg gets used for the Best Bubble & Squeak. The brassica family are still going strong in the garden too and Jamie makes a delicious, Italian Cabbage Soup.

Jamie has a genius barbeque day as he cooks up everything from shellfish to lamb, chicken, ribs and even onions on the barbeque. Barbequing is so much more than bangers and burgers and Jamie shows us some simple rules and techniques that will mean delicious, properly cooked food every time. Jamie barbeques an enticing selection of fresh seafood and we learn the joys of crispy skin on a barbequed salmon. Jamie shows us how to make the best barbeque marinade that will go with everything. Jamie’s ancient spit roast, a rare antique shop find, has its maiden voyage to much anticipation.

The beautiful British summer-time sees Jamie getting a thorough soaking as he picks the beans in his garden. Jamie cooks three varied recipes to show the versatility of beans. Coloured runner beans go into a hearty runner bean stew, French beans make up a marinated bean salad and Jamie makes the best homemade beans using beautiful borlotti beans.

Purple, white and gold carrots, pink and white striped beetroots… the garden throws up a multicoloured feast of beautiful carrots and beets that form the basis of Jamie’s recipes in this programme. Jamie makes the juiciest pork chop with roasted carrots and beets, shows the carrot at their raw best in an Indian carrot salad and makes an exciting dish with foil-roasted smoked beetroots with beef and a cottage cheese dressing. We also find out why carrots mostly come in orange.

There’s a bumper crop of courgettes in Jamie’s garden and he shows us how to utilise them whilst they are in season. Not only do they come in all shapes, sizes and colours but the delicate flowers are edible too. The flowers are very hard to obtain so by growing your own you have access to these gems during the growing season. Jamie makes deep-fried courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta and mint. He shows off the qualities of courgettes with a raw courgette salad to accompany some freshly grilled mackerel. Delicious.

Members of the under-rated allium family gets explored in this episode. Jamie pulls up some of his first onions of the year and makes a crisp and fresh cheese and onion salad. The red onions he uses in an onion and potato al forno with tender roast pork. Brian, Jamie’s gardener and possibly the healthiest man on the planet, munches on raw garlic as they chat about the health benefits. Jamie makes a sensational English onion and leek soup with cheddar cheese.

In this show Jamie makes three inspired recipes using the freshest peas and broad beans picked straight from the garden. Jamie extols their raw qualities in a beautiful pea and broad bean ‘posh beans on toast’, their vivid colour in spiced broad bean fritters, and uses peas as a finishing touch to a spaghetti and meatball dish. Peas and Broad Beans are packed full of nutrition and are brilliant for the soil. Jamie demonstrates how simple they are to grow and the bumper yield you can achieve. During a rainstorm, Jamie has some surprise miniature visitors – visitors that prove very welcome for the organic garden.

In this programme Jamie explains the history of pickling and preserving. If you have grown your own produce you’ll want to save it and keep it for as long as you can or use the excess when you have a bumper crop. Jamie shows you how with a super-quick ‘mothership’ pickle recipe which can be used for pickling anything. He pickles courgettes with mint and chilli and aubergines with garlic and oregano. Jamie also makes a fiery chilli chutney with Welsh rarebit and steak and chips on the barbeque with Jamie’s homemade tomato ketchup.

Jamie has a passion for pizza and he’s learnt interesting variations from his travels in Italy where many recipes are passed down through generations. Jamie forages in the garden to find interesting veg to top his pizza. This show really isn’t about cheese and tomato. After making basic dough the variations can be explored. Jamie makes a traditional pizza and a calzone and Jamie’s traditional wood oven is a great location for a magnificent quattro gusti pizza that is mouth-watering.

Everyone loves potatoes. Jamie enthuses about these underground jewels and makes the perfect potato salad using freshly dug wonderful new potatoes at their best. Jamie’s enthusiasm is infectious as he and Brian investigate what lies beneath the soil. The purple potatoes that are uncovered are amazing. Jamie makes a tasty Spanish omelette and a roast chicken tray bake with tomatoes and delicious potatoes. Brian shows how even in a tiny space you can grow your own spuds and seeing what you can make with them, it is well worth it.

To get the freshest, most flavoursome strawberries there’s only one thing for it and that’s to grow your own. Jamie’s garden is bursting with strawberries from hanging baskets, a great way to grow them, and he picks them in situ to make a strawberry salad with speck and halloumi. Not only are they good fresh, Jamie shows us more inventive ways with the traditional strawberry – his take on a classic is grilled strawberries with pimms. Whilst there are a glut of strawberries in season Jamie shows us how to make the most of them by making a really simple, delicious strawberry jam which he serves hot with a creamy rice pudding. As strawberries are everywhere in Jamie’s garden at this time of year, even Brian gets to take a break and enjoy a strawberry bellini.

A large and varied family group the Brassicas and Jamie makes some fantastic and unusual recipes. Jamie walks us through some of the Brassica family that he has growing in the garden and gives us a run down on what can be done with what – the curly kale, the cauliflowers, broccoli’s, purple sprouting and kohl rabi. Brian crunches on raw stalks and surprises even Jamie that so much of the plants are edible raw. From the garden Jamie picks some incredible lime green and purple cauliflowers and uses them to make curried fritters with a brilliantly simple batter. Cauliflower and broccoli are used for a simple, hearty cannelloni and Jamie cooks ham and spring greens with mustard and celery leaves.

It’s summer and Jamie’s garden is producing row after row of gorgeous lettuce and salad leaves. Jamie starts with an explanation about the basic principles of dressings and makes a simple green salad. Herbs are a brilliant part of a salad or summer dish and Jamie makes a herb and tomato crostini. Brian and Jamie look at what can be grown in a small space – they’ve grown rocket in welly boots, mixed leaves in boxes and lettuce in old bathtubs. There’s no excuse for not growing some greenery - even if you only have a windowsill at your disposal, you’ll be inspired to have a go. Using a variety of leaves from the garden Jamie uses them to form the basis of a lovely roasted peach and bresaola salad with feta and a yoghurt dressing. The wood oven at Jamie’s Essex home looks like Tuscany on this beautiful summers day and the rustic Caesar salad Jamie makes in it is a perfect shared lunch.

Jamie’s garden is bursting with tomatoes of every size, shape and colour. The freshness and vibrancy of the dishes Jamie makes leaves you no doubt that growing your own tomatoes is a must in any garden, large or small. Jamie’s tomato salad looks unbelievably sumptuous and the fusilli with salsa rossa cruda is knockout. The oven baked sausage ragu is simple and rustic and a beautiful pale pink tomato and vodka consommé top and tails the show and is a treat for Brian the gardener.