01x02 - Salcombe

[bunniefuu]

And we’re very hungry sailors.

As we head towards Salcombe,
it’s the cowboys’ life for us.

For one cattle drive, anyway...

Have a sniff.

...with a farmer who wants us to eat
dirt.

James is looking for the biggest bit.
He got it, as well.

We pick winkles on the beach...

Is it winkle o’clock?
It’s winkle o’clock.

...build a barbie on deck...

Ambitious.

Why are we stuck here?

...and all to make dinner for some
special guests.

Cheers.

We’re on a journey along the south coast of
Britain. We’ve caught the afternoon tide,

and there’s a brisk south-westerly
filling our sails.

Today we are making our way from the
mouth of the river Yealm near Plymouth

round the south Devon coast to
Salcombe.

The perfect weather means that skipper
Nick has let me take the helm for a while.

By the time we get in line with that
orange.

While James clocks up the sea miles,

I’m scanning the shoreline for
potential sources of great food.

The thing you notice is all
the green fields.

what I’m doing over here is a spot
of jousting out at sea.

just getting a buoy with a lance.

It’s a boat hook.

A boat hook.

It’s a lance. He’s Sir Galahad.

That worked.

Salcombe.

Should we go ashore now?
Why not? Let’s explore.

Salcombe sits near the mouth
of the Kingsbridge Estuary.

Its natural harbour
has made it a centre for

boatbuilding and sailing
for hundreds of years.

As well as shipbuilding, Salcombe
grew up on the fruit trade.

From the early 19th century,
cargoes of oranges, lemons,

pineapples and coconuts were landed
here. Almost a fruit salad.

Now it’s millionaire yachties
who weigh anchor in the estuary.

No time to hang about. Our mission
is to gather great ingredients

from the best local huntsmen and herdsmen,
then cook them a meal to remember.

Our first visit is to a farm
at Halberton.

The cattle here graze the rich
pastures that we’ve just sailed past.

I’m so glad to get off my bike.

And this is Farmer Jeff, a man now
on his third successful career.

I spent a bit of time in the army.

I was a sapper up in Scotland.

what did you do after that?

I went to university, read
agriculture,

then went into the City, mostly
Asia - Hong Kong and Bangkok.

They’re down here somewhere.

Yeah, they are. They’re round the
corner.

Is this good weather for cows?

No, it’s awful. It’s unseasonably
warm and dry, James.

Farmers always grumble about the
weather. Not at all like us sailors.

They’re all together, trying to
keep cool.

They’re very placid, 'cause they’ve been
handled beautifully from a young age.

what exactly do you find
so amazing about them?

They have this
amazing ability to convert

photosynthetic material,
i.e. grass, into meat and milk,

which is a wonder of nature.

How did you get into farming?

My dad had a farm here. And I always
wanted a farm,

because when you’re a boy you follow
round your dad.

Like you, James.

A bit like me.

James does all the tractors.

[LAUGHTER]

Jeff’s family have been
farming this land for generations,

and he took it
over 13 years ago.

His organic herds are mostly
grass-fed in the open.

We’ve come looking for beef,
but his cows look very content.

He might be unhappy
with the weather,

but I’ve never met a man
so proud of his dairy herd.

If there’s one thing the warm, wet
west does well, it’s grow grass.

Now, what we focus on is the power
of the pasture.

We are known as one of the best
grass growing areas in the country here.

with that grass, we can produce
fantastic products.

I’m going to show you something later which
is novel, cutting-edge, but commonsense.

And that is comparing the soil smell
to the taste of the meat.

That sounds pretty whacky.

You talk about terroir with wine,
which is not whacky at all.

This cabernet sauvignon comes from a nice
chalky soil. You can taste it in the wine.

Hints of blackcurrant and all that.
But nobody does that with meat.

Seriously, do you think that
connection is there?

Because the way that you
turn the grass into meat

is different from the soil
going into the wine, surely?

Well, I disagree. We think we can
pick up the salt from the sea air.

Salt comes in from
the sea, goes onto soil,

goes down, produces
a different sort of grass,

potentially salt-laden grass,

gets eaten by animal,
animal then becomes effectively

a sweet taste, a salty-sweet taste,
you know? We’ll see what you think.

I’m up for trying it.

Well, salt marsh lamb is much
sought after for its rich flavour,

and that comes
from a salty diet,

so it isn’t too far-fetched.
But we’ll see when we taste it.

Jeff runs both dairy and meat herds.

He’s not just a passionate farmer,
he’s a smart businessman.

So I guess he’ll be happy with
a pair of extra cow hands.

These cattle are on their way
to a very unusual milking parlour.

Cows, if boxed in, they’re flight
animals. They’re designed to leg it.

If they get something close to them,
they get a bit freaked out.

So it’s very open, it’s very airy,

and as you can see, they’re pretty
content.

I’m not so sure about Jeff’s
next idea for us.

He leads us off to the farmhouse
for an unusual taste test.

As promised, he’s prepared a couple
of glasses of his finest soil.

Try that one, d*ck.

He wants us to compare its smell
with the taste of the meat.

It smells like good growing soil.

My point is, you look after the
soil well,

you get the terroir of the soil, and
here’s a bit of well hung rump steak.

See if you can make that link.

James is looking for the biggest bit.
He got it, as well.

I would categorically say that
the steak does not taste of mud.

All right? That’s categoric.
It’s very, very nice.

I would say that you have spoken
a lot of sense -

Since we’ve met you so far.

There’s a certain amount of
earthiness in the taste of that.

And this smells like good nice soil,
so in my head, that’s making a link.

That’s what I want you to do,
is make that link.

I can see a link with the earthiness
of it. The beef is good.

what I would like to do - can we take
some beef back to the boat?

Yeah, I’ve got a nice rib of beef
for you.

Oh, sounds good, doesn’t it?

I think we’ll have to leave the soil
here.

Hm. Not sure about the terroir of
the soil, but the beef is lovely.

Jeff’s joining us for dinner
tomorrow night.

We need to do his beef proud.
what shall we do with it?

Let’s make a Wild West feast
fit for a cowboy.

A sticky rib of beef and a great
big pile of homemade baked beans.

So what I’m doing here is making
marinade.

Well, it’s not really marinade, it’s
more of a sticky brush-on mixture,

which we’re going to put
on the beef as it’s cooking.

I’m adding garlic,
chilli and ginger.

I’m going to cook it so that it
starts to thicken up.

Liquid is provided by quite a lot
of soy sauce.

And for that you probably want,

because we’ve got a huge piece of
beef, an entire bottle.

There it is. Some Worcestershire
sauce,

some honey and some rice wine
vinegar. There it goes.

The honey is going to make it sweet.
what gives it the colour is the soy sauce,

but you can also put in some brown
sugar, which we’ve got here.

And the final thing - sesame seeds.

I’m going to cook this for about five to


This is a barbecue sauce. It’s cooked
to thicken it and bring out the flavours.

We’ll use it as a
marinade before cooking

nd a brush-on sauce
while the beef is roasting.

But before I take it down to the galley,
I’m going to mix up the beans, as well.

We’ve decided to do some barbecue
beans to go with the main course.

This is flageolet and haricot beans.

All I’m going to do, add some tomato
puree, and some orange juice,

quite a lot of Worcestershire sauce,

and then some honey.

Looks fairly unappetising
at the moment,

but we’re going to cook
this for about 15 minutes,

until it starts to brown a bit.

These flavours will be so much fuller
because we’re starting to cook them today.

By our dinner tomorrow night, they’ll
be delicious. That’s all the prep for now.

We’re going to go to the right of
that rock. Avoid it.

Next we’ve got an appointment
with a cider press upriver,

and to get there, we are
paddling our own canoe.

Why are we stuck here?

[LAUGHTER]

We are on a coastal journey, looking
for great food wherever we land.

We’re in Salcombe, a protected harbour
on the edge of the Kingsbridge Estuary.

This is a drowned river valley, cut into
the landscape thousands of years ago.

After the Ice Age, sea
levels rose, flooding it,

and producing a fan-shaped
opening into the sea.

I’ll tell you what, I am now getting
thirsty.

I think I have a desire for a little
pint of cider. It’s a lovely day.

Come on, Dad.

Whoops.

Hiya.

Hello. How are you?

Lovely to meet you.

You got to us, then?

Hungry Sailors spared no effort
to sniff out great food.

Paddle power has brought us up
to the Heron Valley Cider Company,

where we’re met by owner Tasha.

My passion is the cider.
And we like doing things

without too many
additives or preservatives.

just keeping it natural and simple.
Absolutely.

They press 500
tons of apples a year,

and make cider, apple
juice and ginger beer on site.

Almost everything they produce is
sourced here on the family farm.

Picking, pressing, fermenting and
bottling are all done in this shed.

Oh, wow. This is where it happens.

So basically, we’ve got...these
guys are now labelling everything.

But actually, what really happens...

I knew you’d appreciate the engine
room.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.
Apples.

There’s a surprise.
A lot of apples.

Cider - is it south of the country?

The north is more about beer
and the south is more about cider,

because that’s how agricultural
workers would have been paid.

We’d never have any workers if we
paid them with our cider.

We make pretty bad cider.

Cider making isn’t that difficult
and most people can make it at home.

Sh! It’s really hard.
I know I shouldn’t tell them.

She’s a businesswoman.
A terrible businesswoman, evidently.

But actually, it’s about
the ingredients.

You look quite dashing. A bit like
train drivers.

I don’t think we need to go in this
direction in this conversation.

Yes. Second scoop goes in.

The apples are first pulped
then packed into canvas parcels

and wrapped well to filter them.

And then the press does the rest.

What about quality control? How did
that get there?

That’s not going to pass.

So, Tash, how long have you been
building up your reputation?

Since my mum and dad started it,
so 25 years.

Do you drink a lot of your own
cider? I do.

You’ll end up with a big red nose.

I’ll welcome that one.

I’ll go for the big blobby nose and
facial hair, which I’m working on.

That’s your last one. So we want
this one nice and tight.

That’s not a very good fold.
Come on.

Remember, I used to make square beds.

Right, son.
He doesn’t use spirit levels, ever.

Och, it says...

Actually, I think...

Is that OK?
I think you’re good.

Feels quite solid.
Right.

One, two, three...

Yes.
You win.

Look at it running out, the juice
gushing out on this side.

Here we go. I’ll show you where
the cider is then pumped into.

So basically, the
pump will then take it

from inside the building
into these large cider vats.

So the first part of the
fermentation happens in these.

The juice is stored in plastic
containers until fermentation begins.

Then it’s moved
into the cider barn,

where it is matures in either
sherry or whisky barrels.

Shall I grab that?
Brilliant, James.

We’re going to try some cider now.
Of course we are.

I think what we’ll do first of all
is try the new season cider.

So this is the basic cider,
fresh off the press.

It’s not yet been put into oak.

Alcohol content?

It always works out about 6%.

What I’m going to do is siphon some.

OK. Ready?

Look at that. Didn’t waste any.

OK. Now can you see, it’s got a very
slight fizz?

Yeah. That is still working,
so the yeast is still live in here.

Thank you. Cheers.
Cheers.

This is very young.
It’s on its way, but it’s dry.

And what we do is ferment everything
to dryness

and then add a little bit of organic cane
sugar at the end, just before it goes out.

OK. We’re going on.
I’ll retrieve that.

You’re in charge of the pipe.
Very important job.

How did you get to be doing all this?

It’s a family business,
and my mum and dad

started it as a kind of
aside to the farm, really.

I moved back down to Devon with my
young children, needed something to do...

and here we are. And it’s lovely.

I love the fact that this room is calm and
there is this amazing alchemy that happens.

You put lovely clean-pressed cider
apples

into a large container, and you let
is nature work its way,

and then you end up with this
fantastic product.

Now we are going to go on.

You have the mallet.
You’re in charge of the mallet.

Oh, it’s your turn. Right.

Look, I’ve got the trick.

Lovely.

You never siphoned off petrol,
did you, son? He’s been spoilt.

Cheers.

This is the one that’s ready.
This is now going out.

And you say you add the new season
to this? Yes.

However, you do
need to be a bit careful

about cultures that are
not friendly, with bacteria.

There’s one barrel that’s
borderline.

It will probably taste like ours.

Hopefully not, for your sake.

I’m looking fonrvard to trying some
of yours now.

I’m going to see the whole
technique.

You’d be very welcome,

but I don’t think you’d want to
make a trip to Cornwall for that.

Now the fun part. Choosing some
cider to cook with.

OK, so now you want to
take some home with you.

Is there a particular
barrel that you really liked?

I liked 16.


That’s old and new.

He’s trying to remember
which ones we’ve had.

He’s going to fall
asleep in the canoe.

I’m going to be there paddling.
It’s not good. Not good.

I’m tired.

Shame Tasha can’t
join us for dinner,

but her cider’s going to
make a great contribution.

We’ll cook it with crab.
That goes really well.

A lot of activity in there.

It’s great to see that Tasha’s
business is really working.

But do you know what I’m really happy
about? It’s downhill to the boat.

First of all, we’ve got to get to
the boat. See you later.

Give us a hand, son.
That’s not fair.

Right. Tie it on and then we go down the
river, float it overboard and it’ll chill.

And then we’ll enjoy it
back at the boat.

Sensible paddling, now.
Sensible paddling.

Shall I get out?

Oh, no. How come I’m the one that
gets wet?

We’re not moving.

This is part of the problem.

Maybe I’m a little bit heavy.

We’ll get over this, son, trust me.

[LAUGHS]

Erm...the river’s a little bit low
at the moment.

Why do I always have to do this
just 'cause I’m heavier?

There we go. Right.
Back to the Amelie Rose.

Go on. Paddle faster, mate.

You’d better not fall asleep back
there, Dad. I’ll know.

A bit further on, we get back on dry
land and swap paddles for pedals.

Then another local ingredient
catches our eye.

These field are ablaze with
bright yellow r*pe flowers.

Rapeseed oil is a new British
industry.

We’re popping into a local press
to see how it’s done.

Ah-ha.

john, good to see you.

We’re met by jonathan, the driving
force of this operation.

Only four years ago, he started
making rapeseed oil in a mini press

on the kitchen table.
Now he’s a zealot.

Come this way.

Once they’re harvested,
the bright yellow flowers

give up their brown
seeds, the source of the oil.

These presses are from Italy.

They were developed for family-run
olive oil farms that dot the Tuscan hills.

How are we going to have it?

Right. First of all, we’re just
going to pour it neat into the bowl.

And then we’ll take a bit of crusty
French bread, dip it in...

And I guess this is how best to get
a real sense of the flavour - by itself.

This is very exciting.

What you should get...you do get a
distinctive, mild rapeseed flavour,

but a buttery-ness, a nuttiness
that’ll come through.

I’ve got...

a tiny bit of, like, spring green,

followed by a bit of spice from a
mustard, followed by a bit of butter,

which sounds a bit poncy, doesn’t
it?

But I seriously think I did taste
that.

It’s a light, nutty oil.

It’s very, very mild.

What about health? You mentioned
Omega 3, 6 and 9.

It’s got half the saturated fat of
olive oil and better cook-ability.

It will go right up
to 220 degrees.

And you can make some
fantastic dressings out of it -

a nutty rather than
a peppery dressing.

Also, it makes cracking mayonnaise,
too.

Not quite like olive oil,
but it’s got its own nice taste.

See what it’s like to cook with.

Oh, we’re being followed.

You know, about a ton an acre of seed
comes off that.

It’s a high-yield crop.
And it’s local, which is nice.

And of course, it is everywhere.

I’m so worried about those cows.

[COWS MOOING]

Do you think we’ve got enough
ingredients for a dinner yet?

What else can we go for?
Perhaps some seafood? Yeah.

[COWS MOOING]

We’re sailing round the south coast,
and we’re moored up at Salcombe.

We’ve already found some tender
Devon beef, local cider and rapeseed oil.

We’re going to use it all
in the dinner we’re cooking

tomorrow night for our
guests back on the boat.

It’s a lovely day, and Bantham Beach
is teeming with happy families.

But we’re on a hunt for something
delicious to eat.

All we can see is shells
and seaweed.

But to beach forager Maya,
it’s dinner.

This is pretty, isn’t it?
It’s a lovely spot.

How long have you been here?

About ten years. And I don’t think
I’m ever going to leave.

I can see why. It’s pretty gorgeous, but
what do you do here other than forage?

Because I imagine that it’s quite
hard to get a living on winkles.

You probably couldn’t
get a living on winkles.

The other thing I do is run a
marine education business.

I take school groups out and teach
them about the rock pools,

about how important the sea is
to us, all those kinds of things.

Is this going to taste good?

It’s going to taste absolutely
lovely. I promise.

Right. This looks a really good spot
here.

We’re going for it now, are we?
Yes, we are.

Finding food.

Freshness, the sea, the water -
is it nice to eat?

The thing you’ve got to be careful of, if
there’s any sort of industrial effluence.

Seaweeds are really good at
accumulating heavy metals.

How would you find that information?
Often you look at water and it looks clean.

Local knowledge.
Ask Maya.

Ask me.
Ask Maya.

It’s safe for us to eat?

It is here. OK. So let’s go.
Come on. Give us something.

We’ve got...
Oh, excuse me a second.

The water’s actually cold.

No, it’s not.

It’s cold water.

OK, this seaweed here,
it’s called gutweed,

and this is good to eat. You can
make crispy seaweed from this,

a bit like the Chinese stuff
you get in your restaurant,

but that’s actually cabbage.

Yeah. This is the real thing.

Come here. He just ran away because
his legs are getting cold.

Freezing.

Actually, you guys forage.
I’ll watch.

What about other seaweeds?
Are they easy to find?

This is sugar kelp.

When it dries, it’s got tiny little white
crystals on the end, which are sweet.

You can cut this into sections
and make kelp crisps from it.

Kelp crisps.
And there’s another seaweed

called Irish Moss, or carrageen, which is
a really good one for making some jellies.

So you can boil it down.

All the algae, the thing that
makes all the seaweeds really slimy,

are the things you can use to make
jelly from.

Seaweed isn’t man food.

I want some protein. And luckily,
this beach is awash with winkles.

Winkles are small, edible sea snails.

They used to be sold in newspaper
cones at c*ck and winkle stalls.

In the 19th century, Londoners ate


But they’ve fallen out of fashion.

Here we go. Here’s some.

I’m not so into lifting up seaweed.

Really?
No. It’s not good.

There’s a nice little winkle.

Yeah, that’s a good one, yeah.

There we go.

I don’t want to find any crabs
or other things.

Here’s a good size winkle.
That’s a massive winkle.

James, stop trying to steal my
winkles. They’re mine.

I’ve got the biggest.

What you need to do, if your
winkle fits through there, it’s too small.

Put your winkle through the hole
and see if it fits.

I bet you I could get this winkle
through that hole.

It’s a big one.

Am I not a forager amongst foragers?

Is it going to be tasty?
It is. Once you’ve tasted it,

you’re going to be converted.

Ow! You’ve got strong feet, you lot.

We’ve got crispy seaweed, which
everybody loves, or most people like that,

we’ve got garlic butter
to dip the winkles in.

Also maybe do the kelp crisps,
as well.

Deep-frying them, a bit
like the crispy seaweed,

so we can see
what they taste like.

With some sesame seeds and extra
sugar on, it could be quite nice.

Absolutely. We’ve got this too.
We’ve got the false Irish moss.

Our jelly-making seaweed.

I think we should take
that back to the boat.

We’ll do something
fancy with that later.

Why did I get scared when you said
that?

I’ll start prepping this veg for the
winkles while you get that going.

Pass me a piece of seaweed.
OK. The bits of sugar kelp first?

A dry piece. This is now hot.
We’re ready to drop it in.

It only needs five seconds
and then out again.

I’m just making some garlic butter
to go with the winkles.

Apparently, they’re nice dipped in
garlic butter, but I’m yet to be convinced.

There we go. Ready with that lid.

A bit ferocious.
That’s the way it is.

Only a few seconds, just to get that
heat through it and then it’s ready.

Oh, yeah. That’s crisping up.

So now all we need to
do is sprinkle some sugar

and sesame seeds
on, and it’s ready to go.

Mm.

We’re making a nice flavoured stock.

Carrots, onions and celery, which
is the standard vegetable stock,

and some herbs
from Maya’s garden.

just up the road.
I’m going to get the plates ready.

Don’t wipe your greasy hands
on your shirt.

Ooh.
Our vegetables stock.

James, give me winkles.

Pop them in.

They’ve all gone under.
OK. Close the lid.

Five minutes. That’s my job.

Is it winkle o’clock?
It’s winkle o’clock.

Looks quite nice, doesn’t it?

Looks lovely.

Smells quite good, as well.

And it’s going to taste amazing,
as well.

OK. They’ve gone.

There’s one.

One more.

Stop it, please.

They still look like snails.

I don’t think one person
needs that many winkles.

Oh, you do. Once you’ve tasted them,
you won’t be able to stop.

They’re delicious.

OK, so what we’ve got here is some
crispy seaweed, which is gutweed.

That’s right.

And another seaweed, which is...

Sugar kelp.

And the sugar kelp and seaweed
have been just deep-fried very

quickly for about ten seconds.

Sesame seeds and sugar on top,
to make it sweet, and garlic

butter to dip the winkles in.

And if we get thirsty,
we’ve got stock left.

Right.

Stick it through the main bit,
pull it out.

And that’s one of the worst things
I’ve ever seen.

But...and all of it’s edible?

All of it’s edible. Dip it in the
butter.

I trust you. It’s like a spiral.

A bit of a twirl there.

[LAUGHS]

OK.

They’re really good.

Really, really nice.

Aren’t they?
Really. Yeah.

Wow.

That’s not as pretty as my one.

That looks a little bit less
appetising than James’s.

I was bad in another life.

You’re still bad in this life.

Here we go.

That’s good. I’m going to have it
without garlic butter now.

Has anyone tried the seaweed yet?
It’s better than the stuff in the

Chinese restaurant.

It’s got that lovely intrinsic sea
taste to it, hasn’t it?

That’s good.

I think I’ve eaten all of mine.

One, two, three...

You always win that.

It’s my mind. Winkle powers.

By the power of winkle...

That was really good.

Wasn’t it? Really nice.

A real surprise, because they look
quite unappetising. Taste it and...

The taste is really good,
isn’t it?

They look a bit rubbery, but they’re
not as chewy as you’d expect.

That was a magical afternoon.
Perhaps I’ll just become a beachcomber.

Bye!
Ta ke ca re.

I’ll tell you what, the tide now
is not with us.

What are you doing?

This is our Irish Moss.

That’s actually our false
Irish Moss,

which does the same job. It’s a
jellification kind of a weed.

It’s Irish Moss. Well, carrageen,
actually.

It’s seaweed with lots of agar. It’s
gloopy. We can use this to make jelly.

All right, there’s easier ways to
make jelly.

A bit of gelatine. But we’re going to
try it with this because we found it.

Making jelly with seaweed
sounds a bit unusual,

but we’re going
to make cider jelly,

to go with the crab that hopefully
we’ll catch tomorrow.

Pasta with crab on
the top, and cider jelly.

Sounds a bit odd, but
should be really tasty.

We’ve rinsed that seaweed very
well to get rid of all the sand.

Now we’re going to add cider, which is
from the Heron Valley place we visited.

In it goes.

Heating this up will take all of
the agar out of the seaweed.

Then we’re going to sweeten it
to make jelly.

Leave it 15, 20 minutes?
Yeah.

Our beach forager Maya and farmer
Jeff are coming to dinner.

We’ve got a big
rib of beef from Jeff,

we’ve already made the barbecue
sauce and baked beans to go with it,

but how are we going to cook it onboard
the boat? Well, James has got an idea.

And he’s almost persuaded me
it is going to work.

James, got the wood.

Well done.

Here you go, son. We have a plan,
James.

What we’ve done is got a very nice
barbecue,

that we’re going to butcher

and turn into a barbecue
for the boat.

The thing is, barbecuing and boats -
fire and boats don’t go together.

Especially sailing boats. But a
barbecue on board will be useful.

So we have a cunning plan.

The safety mechanism is, if anything
goes pear-shaped, or we’ve got a problem,

we’ll just un-flick a hole
in these two little arms,

and it will fall backwards
off into the sea.

That’s the plan at this moment
in time.

At the moment, we’ve got
three bits of wood and plywood,

so that plan may
not come to fruition.

Argh! You can hear Amelie Rose
going, ‘Get that off me!'

[LAUGHS]

This is where we take a
perfectly good barbecue

and make ourselves
something seaworthy.

Have you got any pliers?

We really don’t want that size.

[LAUGHS]

At the moment, the mount works.
It holds it in the right place.

It’s a quick-release mechanism
because we have to be very careful.

What we have to do now is make it
look nicer, because it’s a bit squiffy.

This is how we gauge the level-ness.
You close one eye...

and look at the horizon. It’s not
often you’ve got a spirit level that good.

How are you doing your side?

It’s nowhere near. [LAUGHS]

How did that...

Why don’t you stop bending?

What’s happened there, then?

Stop.

[LAUGHS]

What did you do?

Well, he’s just dropped our
screwdriver bit overboard,

which now means it’s going to be a
little bit slower to finish this project.

Cheers.

That took a while.
It did.

Now, I know my dad isn’t
that keen on the seaweed jelly,

but I’m really intrigued
to see if it works.

First it needs straining
before we leave it to set.

Eurgh. It’s all slimy.

Seaweed and cider.

Do you want to taste it, James?

to?
No.

We’re going to taste it,

because we’re going to add sugar
to sweeten it up if it’s not very nice.

OK. I feel quite brave doing this.

It’s very interesting. It’s
definitely got that seaweed thing,

slight bit of cider, but a bit more
sugar, I think, is really good.

Eurgh.

I don’t like that.
I’m not sewing that.

We are.
We’re not.

We’ll talk about that later.
Come on. Let’s let it set.

I think there’s something quite
special about it,

because crab goes quite well
with cider.

I reckon we just give it a go.
But it does need more sugar.

He’s not convinced.

But Maya is coming to dinner. She’ll be
so disappointed if we don’t make it work.

Come on, Dad. Pull yourself
together. It’s not that bad.

I’ll give it one more try.

There’s about a tablespoon of sugar
in there to sweeten it up.

So much better.
Yeah.

We’re going to put it in the
fridge to set till tomorrow,

and then we’ll have a
seaweed-y, cider-y jelly.

Is that enough?
It’s too much.

It’s 5:00am, and we’re
up with the crab fishermen

to collect the last thing
on our shopping list.

In a few hours, our special
guests will be expecting

a slap-up dinner
onboard the Amelie Rose.

Apparently, dawn is the best time to
empty crab pots laid five miles out at sea.

On the way out, we pass the sleeping
Amelie Rose.

There’s not much life onboard there.
No. I think Nick’s fast asleep.

It looks very peaceful.

I should be snoring and making
the front end vibrate.

I should be trying to get back
to sleep.

Our skipper is Clivey, who began
his career as a fisherman very young.

When did you start this? I can see
you’ve been doing it for a while.

I had a little boat with a few pots
when I was...from ten onwards.

Quite a good way of making some
pocket money.

Yeah, it was. Really good.

Do you ever get holidays?

Not really, no.

Most fishermen, if they’re in,
they want to be out.

And if they’re out, they’ll say
they want to be in.

And how does that go down at home?
Not very well.

Looking forward
to this. Quite scared.

Clive said we could be
getting crabs about this size.

Big c*ck crabs. And I’m, to be honest,
quite scared of little crabs, so I think...

You’ll be over it by the time we’re
through with this.

We’ve got to get them
out quickly, with our hands,

so I am going to have
to get over my fears.

How did you think you were going to
get them out?

I don’t know. I just thought...
tip them instead.

Crabs are lured into pots baited
with whitefish and mackerel.

They climb in but can’t climb out.

Crabbing is big business
on the South Devon coast.

Pots are left on the seabed overnight
and emptied and re-baited every morning.

How far down is it?

What, to the pots?



I’ve got no idea what that means.

Metres?
About 200 foot.



More than 60% of the
crabs landed in South Devon

are exported live
to France and Spain.

Some are even flown to Hong Kong
and China.

Yeah. Sure.

Come on, Dad.

Hello, big boy.

You may have noticed that I’ve got
the good job. I’m helping put the bait in.

It’s the most important job
on the boat.

He’d crack your fingers off.

Where do you buy these pots?

You make ‘em.

It’s gorgeous weather, the seagulls
are making a nuisance of themselves.

It’s quite good fun.
I haven’t touched a crab yet.

I’m not keen on getting too up close
and personal with them.

Come on, James. Be bold.

Get off!

But I have to face my deep sea
demons eventually.

Giving me all that.

Ten minutes later, I’ve done
my first pot.

Blimey. That was quite a lot of
crab pots.

That was 60 crab pots.

Many more to go today?

We’ve got just under 500 to do now.

Wow.

That’s a seriously long day.

Unfortunately, we can’t stay all day
to help.

But what we can do is just try and
cook the crab so it’s incredibly tasty.

And then when you come onboard Amelie Rose,
we’ll try and make it a fair exchange.

Lovely. Look fonrvard to that.

We’ll cook you something.
Good stuff.

And something to go with it.
A bottle would be good.

That’s David.

I think you’ve earned a couple of
crabs.

We haven’t just slowed you down?

I’ve only touched two crabs.

James, do you want to go and pick one
up for us?

That way you’re guaranteed to give us
the little ones.

You don’t know how brave he’s being.

I got two.

Don’t drop ‘em over the side.

What are you doing?

There we go.

That is a big crab.

And I’m being very brave.

Yeah. That’s cool.

It’s a beast, isn’t it?

Is your hand big enough?

I feel a bit sick.

It’s not surprising. The thing is, when
you’re looking around on deck, it’s fine,

but with your head between
your legs, trying to work,

that’s where you
start to feel a bit dodgy.

But you were going for it, trying to
get the crabs in.

It was nothing to do with
being a good crab fisherman.

I was just trying to
keep all my fingers.

You just know that they just want to
get you and they’re pretty powerful.

Now there’s an extra for dinner -
Clivey.

So let’s crack on with the cooking.

First we need to get Jeff’s
big rib of beef on the barbie.

Cooking it will take
a couple of hours.

What I’m going do is put some
tinfoil over this side.

...like that, the beef goes over here.

Now, this is a big lump of meat.

It has to cook for a long time. So
we’re going to get this started now,

then we’re going to start basting it
and add the flavours to it.

We’ve decided to make
crab linguine for our starter,

so I need to pick
the crabmeat out.

Crab fishermen work hard. I’m sure Clive,
when he comes along, is going to be hungry.

The thing about picking meat
from crabs,

you’ve got to know
what you’re doing,

because they are scary
things to take the meat from.

You get white meat around the body
where the legs were.

This is the easy bit.
This is a nice no-brainer.

What we do with this is we give it
a little wallop with a hammer.

Not too hard.

OK? And then we can pull really nice
big tasty bits of claw-meat out.

Oh, look at that.

That’s the easy bit. A lot of meat
comes off a crab.

It’s also very rich, so one of Clivey’s big
ones will be enough for us for starters.

How are you doing, James? You want
to come here and do some of this?

I’m very busy.

john’s rapeseed oil is great
for the store cupboard.

I’m going to flavour these bottles
to make one with chilli,

one with lemon and ginger, and one
with garlic, lime and honey.

After an hour, we baste the beef
with the sauce we made earlier,

and then every 20
minutes until it’s done.

It’s spicy and sweet and should be
really tasty.

Then there’s a few veggie kebabs
going on the barbie too.

There we go. So this is the sticky
goodness.

Oh, yeah.

I’m going to do this another time
before it’s done.

On our kebabs, we’re going to use garlic
to rub over it, to give us the flavour,

and we’ll have some herbs as well.

So we’ve got a bowl full of big chunks of
vegetables and some garlic and some mint.

And it’s rapeseed oil time.

All I’m doing is coating
the vegetables in oil and herbs.

You like mint, don’t you?
I do.

Also, it’s going to help to cool
down the sticky sauce on the beef,

which is a little bit spicy.

Now, tell me that isn’t a handsome
kebab.

There’s our guests
on their way over.

Hello!

I’m very well indeed, sir. Very
well indeed.

There’s Jeff from the beef farm,
Maya the beach forager,

Richard, our oil man,
and crab fisherman Clivey.

What we’re going for
with the crab is very simple

tomato, white wine,
butter and cream sauce.

A bit of dill as the herb.

just nice tomato flavours.

Putting in some wine. The alcohol
is going to burn off.

The water’s come to the boil
with the linguine.

It’s flat spaghetti, which means the
juice should stick to it well.

Brown crab meat.

A little bit of lemon juice to sharpen
it up, because the crab’s quite rich

and we’ve put lot of butter in there
and we’re going to add cream.

It just makes it extra rich.

And I’ll get the cider jelly out.

Is it runny?
That’s a pretty good sight.

This seaweed and cider jelly is
the garnish for the crab linguine.

He’s going in. He’s going into
the jelly.

What I need is you not that close.
If you could go back over there.

Move away. Give me space.

La-la-la-la.

I’m very nearly ready.

Pasta to sauce, not sauce to pasta.

Got to make sure we don’t
break up all the crabmeat.

I don’t even want to turn
it over very much, James.

A little bit of fresh dill.

Either love it or hate it -
cider jelly.

OK. Here we go. Dinner is served.

OK. So what we’ve got -
crab linguine,

freshly caught by Clivey,

with a cider jelly,

made from seaweed.
Yeah. This is the key thing.

It’s really good.

Really sweet.

I’ve got a bit of shell.

Give over. Give over.

[LAUGHS]
That’s evil.

And now...the piece de resistance...

I hope Jeff approves.

It’s sticky, it’s hot, it’s cooked,
hopefully...

Off we go.

The barbecue baked beans
are warmed through.

We made them earlier
to get the fullest flavour.

This is mouth-watering.
It’s worked!

The barbecue works onboard.

Look at that. It’s well cooked,

on a barbecue onboard Amelie Rose.

I’ve got the barbecue beans,
which have orange juice,

Worcestershire sauce,
a little bit of honey.

OK, Dad.

There we go.

Barbecued on a boat.

I love the beans, as well.
A nice tang.

Fantastic.

It’s a bit spicy.

I like it. It enhances the flavour,
actually.

I’d just like to say cheers to the people
of Salcombe. We’ve had a great time.

ALLi Cheers.

Which bit do you want?

That one.

Cheers.

A barbecue!

Can you taste the soil?

It doesn’t taste of mud.

I really like Salcombe.
It seems a shame to leave.

But what’s around the corner? There’s
a whole world of adventure out there.

Back to the open
sea for us tomorrow,

and another leg of our
culinary coastal journey.