The Hairy Bikers are back – and this time it’s personal.
The down-to‑earth TV chefs say that new show The Hairy Bikers Go North is their “most emotional and enlightening” ever as they return to the landscape that shaped their identities… and their palate.
And they say it draws inspiration from another screen pairing, that of Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse in BBC2’s Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.
Dave, 64, says: “We like the Bob Mortimer fishing show – it’s inspiring – so we tried to get a lot more of that. There’s a lot more of our personal side in this series about the north, as that’s where we’re from.
“We banter and get drunk and have a great time. We talk more about each other, about life and growing up.”
He says Mortimer and Whitehouse’s life-affirming journey, exploring their changed outlooks while trying to land a catch, was “calming”, encouraging men to talk more openly about their issues.
Dave adds: “We do touch on mental health in this series.
“There’s a garden in the Lakes, it’s a fully functioning garden for people overcoming mental health difficulties.
“We spent a day with them growing and chatting. I think men do need to talk more.”
In Thursday’s episode, Dave and Si set out on a trip down memory lane, travelling across Cumbria to Barrow-in-Furness – the working-class industrial town where Dave grew up.
At the Growing Well farm, a place dedicated not only to growing great vegetables but also to nurturing its volunteers, the pair lend a hand as they open up about the mental health issues they have faced.
And after their day’s labour, they cook a mean summer vegetable strudel with an American layered salad.
Si, 54, who lives near Newcastle, says: “Go North is without doubt the most personal, emotional and enlightening journey we’ve undertaken.
“It was a trip around the wonderful landscapes that shaped our identities, palates, culture and friendship.”
He adds: “We met some great folk dedicated to their areas and the success of their beloved communities. We flipping loved every turn of that motorcycle wheel.”
Dave and his wife Liliana divide their time between a home in Kent and one in France – which he is having to sell due to Brexit. He adds: “It’s been nearly a decade since we went on the road in Britain – and it’s true you quite often miss what’s on your own doorstep.
“The series is a love letter to the north, and a celebration of the food and the people that produce it.
“Viewers will get to see the two of us in our temporary homes in an intimate, honest reflection of two lifelong friends cooking, laughing and living together.
“We found amazing cooks, chefs and producers who have chosen to make the north their home. The landscape and roads are as varied as the people themselves.”
Here, the Hairy Bikers have given us three recipes from this Thursday’s episode in Cumbria to get you in the mood before the show...
- The Hairy Bikers Go North is on BBC2 on Thursdays at 8pm
Vegetable strudel
We’ve gone the English garden vegetable route rather than Mediterranean but we did include tomatoes for a
bit of acidity – plus everyone grows them here, so it’s not wrong.
We had a walk round the garden for herbs and ended up including tarragon, chervil, basil, chives, lemon thyme and summer savoury. It meant that no two mouthfuls tasted the same. We used chives in place of adding spring onions – but if no chives, add a couple of finely sliced spring onions just to get an onion heat (the leeks are all about sweetness).
We also decided to keep it really light so there’s no sauce to speak of or cream to bind it together. It didn’t really need it.
We used Jus-Rol filo pastry, which is seven sheets (25x45cm).
For the vegetable filling
2 tbsp olive oil
25g butter
300g leeks, sliced
A sprig of tarragon
300g small courgettes, sliced or diced
depending on size
100ml Vermouth or white wine
3 small little gem lettuces or equivalent,
cut into wedges
200g new potatoes, boiled whole and diced
300g runner beans, shredded and blanched
150g tomatoes
A mix of chopped herbs – tarragon leaves, chervil, basil, dill, summer savoury, lemon thyme, oregano, chives
Salt and pepper, to season
For the crust
1 x 270g pack filo pastry
75g butter, melted
■ Put a tablespoon of the olive oil and the butter in a large saute pan. When the butter is foaming, add the leeks and tarragon sprig. Cook on a medium high for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until lightly browned and starting to tenderise.
■ Add the courgettes and cook for another couple of minutes. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and turn up the heat.
■ Pour in the Vermouth or wine and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer until the leeks are completely tender – the courgettes still should have some bite to them. Leave to cool.
■ Heat a griddle and toss the lettuce in the remaining olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Griddle on a medium heat until lightly browned but still al dente in the core. Roughly chop and add to the leeks.
■ Gently stir the potatoes, runner beans, tomatoes and herbs through the leeks. Taste for seasoning. Make sure it is completely cool before assembling.
■ Preheat the oven to 200C.
■ To assemble, lay out the filo pastry. Take one sheet and lay it landscape fashion on the worktop. Brush it with butter. Lay another sheet on top, leaving the bottom third uncovered and brush with more butter. Take a third sheet and this time it should start a third of the way down the second sheet – this will increase the surface area considerably.
■ Continue this same pattern until you have used up all the filo pastry, brushing with butter each time and sprinkling with salt every so often.
■ Pile the filling into the middle of the pastry, leaving a border on either side.
Fold up the bottom over the filling, then
fold in the sides and very carefully roll over. If this is too unwieldy, pull the top exposed pastry over. Brush with butter throughout and when you have finished transfer to the baking tray.
■ Bake in the preheated oven for around 25-30 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Serve at room temperature.
Pad Thai
For this, we’ve simplified by taking out the red curry paste.
But instead of using dried shrimp we’ve used the brown shrimp two ways – crisped up and caramelised with chilli and peanuts as an extra garnish (a bit like Ikan Bilis Goreng) as well as as they come.
This is to make the most of the Morecambe Bay Shrimp, but you could just use the dried shrimp instead, fry them in oil without the sugar and peanuts and add roasted peanuts as a separate garnish.
As the shrimp are so tiny, it will work better if you get the narrower 2-3mm rice noodles as opposed to the 5mm. Salted radish is really important to the flavour, too – we did it without the first time and really noticed the difference.
The dish serves two – every recipe we’ve read says you are courting disaster by trying to increase the volume for this
For the base
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 shallots, finely sliced
2 small bok choi or equivalent in green cabbage or Chinese lettuce, shredded
2 eggs, beaten
150g flat rice noodles, soaked/cooked according to instructions
75g beansprouts
100g Morecambe Bay Shrimp
25g salted radish, finely chopped
For the sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce; 1 tbsp tamarind puree; 1 tbsp palm sugar; Juice of half a lime
For the shrimp and peanut garnish
1 tsp vegetable oil; 1 tsp palm sugar; 2 tbsp Morecambe Bay shrimp; 1 tbsp peanuts, crushed; A large pinch of chilli powder or flakes
To garnish
A handful of coriander; A handful of Thai basil (optional); A handful of beansprouts; A few Chinese/Garlic chives (in lieu of garlic); A few chopped red chillies
■ First, make the shrimp and peanut garnish.
Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan, add all of the ingredients and plenty of salt and cook until the shrimp and peanuts are well toasted. Transfer to some kitchen towel to drain.
■ Put the sauce ingredients into a small
saucepan with a tablespoon of water and heat gently to make sure the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat.
■ Make sure you have everything ready and at hand before you start stir frying. Heat the oil in your wok. When the air above it is shimmering, add the shallot and fry for 2 minutes before adding your choice of green. Stir fry until the greens are al dente. Push to one side and add the egg. Cook, continuing to stir, until the egg has set. Add the rice noodles and mix everything together to combine.
■Pour in the sauce and add the remaining ingredients, including all the shrimp and peanuts. Stir it all together until the noodles are piping hot, then turn out onto plates.
■ Garnish with the herbs, beansprouts and chillies, if using.
Morecambe bay shrimp spring rolls
We’ve stuck with the Thai theme on these, adding laksa leaf as we really love them.
Although they haven’t made it to the supermarkets yet, all the garden centres seem to have the plants and you can usually get them in Thai/Chinese supermarkets, too.
They’re the missing link for us – the ingredient you can always taste in East Asian food but can’t quite place.
We’ve suggested straining the marinade and using as the base of the spring rolls, partly because they need straining anyway to stop them being too soggy and/or creating too much steam inside – and there’s quite a lot of overlap with the dipping sauce we were planning. Also, you get a hint of shrimp in there so there’s a bit of a leche de tigre vibe going on.
We’re a bit funnyabout the weighing of fillings – you should end up with roughly 25g of filling per spring roll, which is a tablespoon of the vegetables and a dessert spoon of the shrimp. We do them separately so you get an equal amount of shrimp in each spring roll.
We haven’t put any chilli in here, but a bird’s eye chilli finely chopped in the marinade would be good.
For the shrimp marinade
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 tsp palm sugar
A few drops of sesame oil
½ tsp salt
5g piece galangal, grated
1 lemongrass stem, white insides finely chopped
4 lime leaves, very finely chopped
A few laksa leaves (Vietnamese coriander), shredded (optional)
A few grindings of white pepper
250g brown shrimp
For the dipping sauce
Strained marinade
2 tbsp fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp palm sugar
4 lime leaves, shredded
A few mint leaves, shredded
5g piece ginger, finely chopped
For the filling
20 spring roll wrappers
100g hispi/sweetheart cabbage,
finely shredded
50g carrot, finely shredded/julienned
50g spring onions, whites only, halved lengthways and shredded
50g radishes – white or our own
pink will do and add colour – cut into fine strips
A few sprigs of coriander, finely chopped
½ tsp salt
Egg wash for binding
■ First, mix all the ingredients for the marinade together and add the shrimp. Leave to marinade for half an hour. Mix all the remaining filling ingredients together. Strain the shrimp, making sure to reserve the marinade.
■ Make the dipping sauce by adding all the remaining ingredients to the marinade.
■ To assemble, take a spring roll wrapper and place it on your work surface. Weigh the filling ingredients separately and divide by 20. Take the relevant amount of each and mix together, then place in a line along the bottom third of the spring roll wrapper, making sure you leave a border large enough to cover the filling. Fold the border over the filling, then fold in the sides. Brush with egg wash and roll up quite tightly, then seal with more egg wash.
■ Heat oil to around 180C and fry the spring rolls a few at a time until crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen towel and serve with the dipping sauce.
