Jordan Stephens, saffron & cardamom chicken with cranberry salsa, and a vouvray

0:00Turn up the heat this Valentine's Day with a meal that brings a little steam to the table. Impress your loved one with some succulently sweet and slightly nutty tender stem broccoli, giving you that fine dining feeling without the faff. Simply boil, steam or grill your tender stem in just a few minutes and let this versatile veg take center stage on your Valentine's plate. This is Valentine's cooking, but better with tender stem broccoli. Add a pack to your weekly Waitrose shop, subject to availability. Dish from Waitrose is a cold glass production. This podcast may contain some strong language and adult themes.

0:39Hello, welcome to Dish on Waitrose. I'm Nick Grimshaw. And I'm Angela Hartnett. And here we are in a festive setting. Very festive. Because we're just a few weeks out from Christmas now. Ah, you've been excited since the middle of November. I have. Our tree went up earliest ever. End of November. And how many trees do you have? We have one at the moment. And by Christmas Day, how many are you going to have? Mish thinks we should have one in the kitchen, which I agree on. Okay. Because I think... By Christmas day, how many can you have? When you have a new Christmas, like lunch and everything, nice to have a tree.

1:11Okay. Two. Two. And where's the other one going? Well, we're currently locked in a debate because he thinks we should have one in our bedroom, which I think's mad. He also thinks it should be on a timer so that when I wake up at 5.30, it's on at 5.29. So I wake up and I'm like, Christmas! I do like Christmas. And I love it. for getting people together. It's lovely, yeah. Oh. The chicken. The chicken. Oh, yeah, chicken. Oh, chicken. Well, we are cooking. Hello, chicken. Hello, chicken. Hello, chicken. The observant viewers amongst you will have noticed that we're in a new studio today. Exciting.

1:48I actually don't know where I am because I fell asleep on the way here. We are in a different studio, but it still feels dishy. It does. We have our table. The table. We have our cabinet. I like yeah yes you me you kitchen food how has it been cooking in a different kitchen it's fine we have all our little bits it's all good it's induction though that's been slightly annoying because you and I like the gas we like gas don't we our guest today is Jordan Stevens Jordan he does a lot there's a lot to talk to Jordan about he of course is a musician he is a writer Jordan's had a great year because he's joined Miss Me of course with Makita He's been on stage at the Young Vic.

2:32He's played Glastonbury. There's a lot going on. It's a lot to talk to Jordan about. Have you met Jordan? No. He's lovely Jordan. I've started reading his book and he sounds, well, incredible actually. Yeah, he really, really is. And he's very open about himself. He is, yeah. Very honest. Yeah, he's really nice to spend time with. But first, Anthony, off of sound. Off of sound. Has a question. What's in season? What's in season? Lovely, lovely question. Not exactly seasonal, but we basically want to ask you whether or not stuffing should be liberated. Oh. Because Alex Schrock is a Waitrose recipe writer.

3:12Yep. You know him from St. John. Ex-St. John, yeah. Lovely Alex. He said, let's liberate stuffing. Give it more airtime than roasts and Christmas. There's nothing to stop us having stuffing, chips and baked beans for tea. So what do you think about that, Ange? having stuffing in its own right, like away from a roast. Because stuffing, a lot of stuffing is meat-based. Yeah. So it's sausage meat. Essentially having sausages, flavor sausages with maybe your chips and your beans. So I can see how that can work, yeah. So what are your key things for a stuffing? I like a nut. Nut in there, fruit in there.

3:50But we do do a veggie stuffing. I do a spinach stuffing on Christmas Day with ricotta, parmesan and a few breadcrumbs. And that goes down a storm. Remember the one that you did for Florence, which was apricot, sausage, stage and almonds? Oh yeah, the sage. You need the sage. And that was good. You should do that this Christmas. Yeah. Yeah, it's easy. Yeah, it is actually. Of course it is easy. So take your sauce, buy some nice sausages, normal fennel sausage, you can be there. Take them out of their skin. You can do that or buy the sausage meat. Add in some chopped almonds, some chopped apricots, some sage.

4:24seasoning a few herbs maybe a bit of rosemary maybe some parsley that's it and just put it in a baking tray put it in a baking tray or mould it back into like a log shape wrap it in foil with some butter and cook it in the oven done how long? about 20 minutes half an hour 20 minutes half an hour easy done okay well we've liberated stuffing so should we get Jordan Stephenson definitely let's do it hi how are you? how are you doing? absolute pleasure hi Jordan likewise how are you? yes you alright? I'm alright Thank you for the invite. Pleasure. I'm buzzing. See yourself down. I'm very buzzing from what I can see on this table.

4:58Yes. Angelo, talk us through this recipe. How you made these? Oh, my croissants I made this morning. You made them? You legitimately made that, did you? No way. Because they're hard to make. They are hard. Impossible. I remember vividly, because I love croissants, I would, if I had the time, I would do a side project, Croissant Connoisseur, I'd go around the whole world. Taste testing croissants, I'd have five measurements of quality. What are they? where it would be like softness you know crispness around the edges sweetness maybe aeration aeration size you know what I mean this kind of thing I have I know where my favourite croissant in the world is but we can get on to that we will but I googled it or put it on YouTube how to make a croissant yeah and the top comment is sometimes in life you just realise things aren't worth doing yeah and it was like and people watch the video going like good luck with that yeah yeah because it is it's arduous Do you fill yours or are you plain?

5:53No, no, no, I like plain. Plain. Have one, please. I'm going to try one. Not made, but purchased. Yeah. Are you having one, Ange? I'll have a bit with you. I'll share an Ange. Yeah, come on, have a little bit, yeah. It's a classic dinner party style. Yeah, it is. There we go. And we've also got it with an Earl Grey as well. Oh, yeah, of course you can. It's warm to start with. We've also got an Earl Grey. Earl Grey. Earl Grey tea. It's an Earl Grey tea. It's the best podcast ever. That's good. Hey, I never have an Earl Grey as well. I love an Earl Grey. Is this from a... You bought this... Waitrose.

6:23Yeah, waitrose. Of course. But is it like a waitrose-like packet or is it like fresh from the bakery? Gales in waitrose. No, that's not gales. That's a gales. Yeah. Warmed up. Yeah, warmed up. I thought I would have guessed the taste of gales. Oh. And where's your favourite country to eat a croissant? Hungary. Wow, I was not expecting that. Right. You see, the serious stuff is like Hungary. I'm serious about this research. Really serious. In fact, I would go as far as I say, I don't think that croissants are actually from France. Wow. I actually think the history, I think they're Austrian. Are they?

6:59That may be true. That could be. I could have believed that. I think they've been adopted in French culture. And obviously I've had some great croissants in Paris. But the best croissant I've ever had is in Budapest. Right. Ever. And I tell everyone about it. And it's at a bakery called Vag.

7:23I love Vagge. Yeah, I love Vagge. I've never tried Vagge, have you? Never tried it. Let's get it over here. You really recommend it. Yeah, I think it's fashion. What? Very warm, very soft. Yeah, okay, that's right. Brilliant. Go try it. Seriously. That is the Hungarian word for butter. Oh. Okay.

7:45Come on, guys. We're talking about international cuisine here. Should we welcome our guest, Anne? Yes, for sure. Shall we? Okay, let's welcome a man who can do it all, truly. An author, a musician, a presenter, an actor of stage and screens. A man who's specialist subject on Mastermind was the life and times of Ross Geller. He really does it all. It's Jordan Stephens, everybody. Hi, Jordan. Hi, Jordan. Hello. Hi. Welcome. Yeah. Nice to have you. Thank you. It's nice to be here. It's very homely and Christmas-y. This is not normally where we do dish. This is our different spot. It feels the same.

8:23Yeah, I don't think people would have clocked on. No, we'll edit that out. How are you? How is life? How is everything going? Good, yeah. It's been an incredibly busy year. So I'm actually looking forward to a little break, of course. Especially the Christmas gooch. You know about the Christmas gooch? Yeah, a little bit. Christmas and New Year. Especially quiet. Some people get really depressed about that bit, but I love that time. It's amazing. It's fantastic. You're eating leftovers. You know, you're planning. Yeah, chilling, waiting to make your resolutions that you're never going to potentially keep.

8:56Watching TV all day. Watching TV. That's my vibe. And what are your plans at Christmas? We're hosting Christmas this year. How many have you got? Jade's family are coming down and there's probably like seven, eight. And then I've probably got two or three or four coming from my side. So it'll be cool. I mean, it's either ours or up in the northeast. Your northeast. In Shields, which I do actually really love. And I haven't been there that much this year, which makes me sad. So it's bittersweet, but ultimately I don't have to go up. Who's cooking, you or Jade? Jade. Jade's cooking. Jade has got very good at cooking to the point where it's like, yeah, I feel like a bit, I need to get my game up.

9:36Because she wasn't that good when we first met. And she's really up the levels. She's up the game. she came on here and she was very passionate as we know about roasts I mean roasts she's always cooked roasts don't get that twisted so I guess like this is her sort of this is her like pyramid state can I be cooking a roast on Christmas day it's like can I tell you something funny that happened yesterday I don't even know if she wants me to say this but I have to say it because it's so funny she

10:04in the build up to Christmas she like banned roasts in the house she was like last weekend she was like this is the last roast she said it's the last roast because the next roast is gonna be Christmas and it's gonna be lit but then yesterday she was like where did I go I can't remember where I went I had like a I was craving for something else I wanted to get some Nigerian food so I just said to whoever was in the house I was like look I'm gonna order a Nigerian like what you guys saying you know some suya and she was like okay yeah cool well no we're just gonna cook some chicken and potatoes and um I was like a roast she went No, no, no, no.

10:43I looked at her and went, Jade, will there be gravy? She's like, yeah. And then Holly, her best friend, was just like, Jade, it's a roast. It's a roast. It's a roast. No, no, otherwise the food will go to waste. The food will go to waste. I love the idea of, like, abstinence from a roast in the lead-up. That's a great idea, actually. It's a clearing to do. You can't be taking that for granted. No. You need to crave the roasties. You need to, yeah. I love that. What do you think is the best thing on the roast that Jake does. Yeah, her roasties are great. That's like the thing she focuses on the most.

11:16And I think she said that on here. I think she said that she has that as a casual snack. Yeah. Which is also true. I do hope that my mum can cook some of the veg on Christmas. She's a great cook and she does a great caramelised parsnip. You know what I mean? Sometimes sprinkles a little bit chilly on them on unexpected times when the carrots, you know? But I have, I am a very fast eater so I have to consciously try and eat slowly. Right, okay. Should we do your food likes and dislikes? We always like to do this with our guests right at the beginning. Cool. So let's do this. Sometimes our guests don't remember writing this, so I always like this bit.

11:50Your likes are croissants. Voila. Caribbean chicken, rice and peas, salt fish, sushi, Nigerian soya. Soya, yeah. Soya. Nigerian soya, jollof rice. Spicy things, spices. But then also plain Jacob's crackers. Just plain. Yeah, throw it in there. Apple-based desserts Apple-based desserts Yeah Fish Yeah fish Love fish Only one dislike French cuisine

12:22Just one Every French production I thought I just Throw it in for fun Just France No listen listen Just a whole nation Just France Yeah No I guess I say it Because I knew that I'd be like Wee Wee Wee I obviously just I'd like to disclaimer it by saying I love garlic and butter. Yes, yes. Great, great additions to any recipe. Yeah. Big garlic fan. But I think if I was to make a list of national cuisines, I'm just saying French cuisines wouldn't be up there. It wouldn't be up there in your top ten. I don't eat red meat, so steak, I'm not that bad. Yeah, makes sense. You know, sure, I'll try snail.

13:00I'm not stressed. But I'm not like, I just, I don't know. The variation doesn't... Doesn't go for you. I don't know, what do you get? Please enlighten me. What else is going on at a French restaurant other than creme brulee, a steak? What's for starters, bread? Bread. Bread. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but it is heavy meat-based. They do do a few salads and stuff. They do. You need to go to the right French restaurant. Oh, a niçoise salad. Niçoise salad. I like a niçoise salad. Yeah, that would work. No, aside from that, that's a great salad. Yeah, that's a great salad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's up there.

13:31I remember one of our friends saying that, a step-mom is French. And so she'd go and visit her a lot. and she's like, yeah, it is nice to go and everything, but famously, it's like the food's so bad in France, isn't it? I was like... Is it? Those aren't my words. Is it really? She was like, yeah. She's vegan and also I think it's tough for her though because they're like, there's some places that are vegan where you're not working. You just baked it in a cheese sandwich which isn't even vegan. No, but I had it, when I was a kid, I went to Brazil when I was like 15 years old and I was a vegetarian at the time.

14:03They literally didn't understand what that was. Like I remember asking specifically for a cheese ball like keza I was just like keza only keza you know and you're biting this ball and a piece of ham will come out and then one time they were like do you eat chicken I was like oh no and they're like oh hmm and I was like is that a problem and they were like no no no okay and so about 45 minutes later my cousin has a chicken with extra blood sauce by the way oh which is fascinating and they just gave me an artichoke that was that was sure as a 15 year old just an entire artichoke not an artichoke heart not artichoke hearts the actual cooked artichoke just a cooked artichoke I didn't know what the f*** was happening like I didn't know you had to eat the end of the spoon kind of thing and then you leave though I'm chewing on spikes I don't know what's going on what'd you do?

14:58just have that it's like a weapon I can't believe I didn't tell you no direction on artichoke at 15

15:09And then you have experience of kitchens as well. Didn't you work in like a Greyhound? Yes, I did. What was it, like a Greyhound racing thing? I forget all the things I've put in my book. This is good. This is fun. Yeah, my last job before getting a record deal was working in the fast food kitchen in a Greyhound stadium. Corals, to be precise. In Hove. And the boss did not like me, which is a long story. Anyway, he didn't. Why do you think he didn't like you? Well I You're very likeable Thanks I mean I am A lot older now You're actually likeable Yeah You know what I mean He's very Well we would We would obviously I don't know if he got annoyed About how much of the food We'd eat Yeah And how old were you Like 15?

15:51Yeah 16 16 Yeah But we had a dispute Basically And the way I can put it Is I'm quite pedantic Which isn't a Likeable trait Often And so I can't let things slide If they don't make sense to me and there was one one day on my seventh shift i remember this specifically because of what happens on my seventh shift i turned up 15 minutes late right and he went jordan this is ridiculous like you're 15 minutes late for work i went dude i'm so sorry i know like it won't happen again it's the first time this has happened and he went yes but it's your seventh shift so this means you're late every one in seven times oh and i went unfortunately that's not mathematically You'd have to have had 28 shifts and be late four times for you to have an average like that.

16:39You can't, you can't. And that's why he didn't like it. Yes, okay. And then from that point, he just had it. He had it in for me. He was fuming from then. And then there's actually one point where I walked in. I remember on like, it was, you know, you're always trying to get Sunday shifts because it was like double pay. Or like, not double pay, but like more pay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One day I walked into him and I said, I'm not coming into work tomorrow. And he went, okay, why? I went, I've got a record deal. And he went, okay, bye. And that was it. And that was it. Seriously? See you later. No questions.

17:10No, no, congratulations on nothing. Just like, in a bit. Okay, see you later. Oh, that's crazy. Wow. Oh my God. This looks good. It smells really good. Hold on, I've got some little breads to go with this. Yeah, that was my last job. And before that, I had a brief stint in a vegetarian burger restaurant called Red Veg, which was actually really, really amazing. I don't know what happened to it, but that's where I met the guy. The guy who worked there was my first ever mentor in a youth centre. And he kind of really encouraged me and taught me how to rap, gave me my first beat CD. I owe him a lot.

17:43And that was literally because we went in to get a burger, me and my mum, and he overheard us talking about me making music and he went, you should come along to the youth centre, yeah. Wow, that's fantastic. And now I'm the patron of that youth charity, Audioactive. And that's tied into another campaign I'm in with youth music called Rescue the Roots, which is all because of how important that space was to me as a child. Wow. Oh, that's brilliant. I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's great. And this is why we advocate for, you know, like opening youth centres rather than closing them. And we're having to crowdfund a lot to like keep some of these open.

18:15But yeah, man, it was, Brighton Youth Centre was great. Audioactive's great. You know, so more power to them. Yeah, I love that. That's brilliant. Yeah, man. Food brings people together.

18:28Okay, food is here. So we have a saffron cardamom chicken with cranberry and almond salsa. And this is a recipe by Noor Murad. So sprinkle that over that. No, just go for it. And then you can have a little bit of yogurt on the side. And a bit of this. And then we've got a little bit of spiced cabbage as well. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yogurt on the side. Is that an intention? Like, that's not for the spice. No, no, no. That's fine if you want that. and then you've got some little breads there as well. Oh, wow. So buttery greens and flatbreads with it as well. Okay, delicious. Oh, my God. It's good.

19:00There we go. It smells amazing, Ange. I really like this. Oh, my God. So tell us about this, Ange, because you've got amazing crispy skin on that chicken. So it's basically you take your chicken thighs, season them up and then roast them in a little bit of olive oil. So nice crispy skin, that's what you want. Then once you've coloured all your chicken thighs, skin side up, then remove them from the pan and then you add in your onions, garlic you've got some bay leaf you've got saffron, cardamom Is the saffron what's me giving it kind of like an airy I don't know how to describe the It's sort of a sweet sort of flavour to it Oh okay sweet, okay a bit slightly perfume So it's not supposed to be spicy as in heat it's spice as in you've got cardamom, cinnamon in there bay leaf and the saffron so it gives it that warm spice rather than hot.

19:51Cinnamon is quite a lot of cinnamon. Yeah. So that all goes in there, roasted down with the onions and garlic. Then you add some apple cider vinegar, a little bit of caster sugar, and some chicken stock. This is very good for the soul and body. And then it goes back in the oven with the chicken thighs, cooked for about 35 to 40 minutes. Take the lid off and then let it colour up even more crispy skin and let the sauce reduce down. The cranberries are a real touch. And then in the salsa, you've got cranberries, basil, dill, chives, flaked almonds, and a little touch of olive oil where you roast off your nuts.

20:27Instead, that's like a dry salsa, just to add a little bit of sweet and nuttiness to it. I like a dry salsa. You've got to remember to roast off the nut. You've got to have your nuts roasted off. Really great. And then how did you do the skin all crispy? Basically, in a pan, olive oil, and you just keep it there for about three or four minutes, nice and crispy. And then you turn it over, cook it on the non-crispy side for about two minutes. But when I took the lid off there, that's when it crisped up in the oven as well. So a final sort of 10 minutes in the oven. Right, this is really good. Good, I'm glad you're enjoying it.

20:57I mean, it's a bit of bread as well. A bit of bread, flatbreads, yeah. There's also a wine pairing, which is a white wine pairing. Oh, sorry, it's French, Jordan. But you don't drink, so you're fine. No, I get it with a wine, I guess. But I'm not a wine drinker anymore. Yeah. And when I was, I didn't care. Yeah. Hence why he's not. Wine, yeah? Great. Yeah, yeah, I love it. Rioja, is it? Yeah, I love it. So there's a wine pairing with this, Ange. What have we gone for? So we've gone for an off-dry Chinon Blanc, which is a lovely white wine, goes with saffron and cardamom chicken, floral, fruity notes in these wines create a harmonious pairing.

21:33Oh, yeah. Like us. That's it. We're a harmonious pairing. If you want to try this dish at home, all the ingredients that we've used today, you can get online and you can get the recipe on waitrose.com forward slash dish recipes. Yeah. that's so cool this is really tasty Ange thank you so much thank you more if you want some okay so before we chat more to you Jordan we've actually got a question from a listener oh cool which I thought you'd like because we want to talk about dogs obviously key to you key to the book it's in the book's title it's in the book's title exactly yeah you're Spike and Mimi yep I've got Pig and Stinky Blob and she has Otis and Betty Otis I feel like doesn't get enough press on this I know Betty does Betty gets a lot of press on Dish.

22:17Why is Otis being left behind? He's not being left behind, but Otis, he's in the background because he likes to play it in the background. We call him a gentle... No, no, we call him a gentle soul. He's older now, Otis. And if there's too many people in the room, he sort of gets himself off the chair and goes out the room. She's like, I don't want to sit and listen to you lot. Pig's gone a bit like that now. Pig's like, whatever. When the dog's big. Don't know, because she's rescued, so we don't know how old she was. I've had her 11 years. Yeah, it's a long time, bro. Nearly 12 years. Wait, I've not met Stinky.

22:51You have, no. You know, the little Stinky blood? Last time someone came round who'd not met him, he came down the stairs and they went, what is that? Oh, no! Because his face is all a bit like that. What, Stinky? Yeah, he's got mad face Stinky. Why is his face mad? He's got underbite, and his back legs are higher than his front legs. You don't. Why? Is he a rescue? Yeah, they're both rescues, yeah. I rate that and how many dogs have you and Jay got two Spike and Mimi two rescues Spike's about eight so I want to say eight or nine and Mimi's three or four and could you have brought them here today yeah yeah and they're like cool because I've met Spike Spike is ridiculously calm Mimi's she doesn't really like new people she's very cautious but once you're in she's lovely she likes women more than men but like it's a you know and I kind of had to learn from her a little bit in that.