Kevin McCloud is served pork chops with his own home-grown pickled rhubarb

18:25Animals are less reliable. Grapes, hugely difficult to grow, I think. And you could do the whole bloody thing and then the wine's crap.

18:32Angela Hartnett:Because there are so many bad years. Yes, high risk. We've got to start growing stuff, Ange. We've got to stop growing. Start a winery in your fat garden. Come on. We're not going to start a winery. No, I've tried that with Angela before and she's not having it. Not a chance. I have kitsch to Kevin before saying, why don't we do one? Yeah. Like a good English wine somewhere. Come up to Herefordshire and I will take you around 12 wineries. Yeah. Within half an hour. Oh, wow. Tell us what we have, please, Angela. So we've got pork chops with pickled rhubarb and shaved fennel, a recipe by Ed Smith.

19:08Angela Hartnett:And what we've done is, first of all, we made the little pickling liquid for the rhubarb. So I used a pestle and mortar to crush the coriander seeds and then toasted them off in the pan with the star anise for about three to four minutes until they start to smell fragrant. Added some white wine vinegar and caster sugar and then heated all that up so the caster sugar melts down. We have our pickling liquid and then we add our rhubarb to it. And this is your rhubarb, by the way. Unbelievable. Yeah, this is your rhubarb. I thought you needed like months to pick it. No, no, it's a very fast pickle.

19:37Angela Hartnett:Then while that's pickling, we slice up our fennel, we add salt and orange juice to that, then let that sort of infuse and marinate. And then we make a salt with fennel seeds for the pork chop. So we basically pound some fennel seeds with some sea salt, pound that all together in a mortar and pestle, and then we roast the pork chop in a pan. So you render down the fat a bit first and then colour it up nicely. And if you want, you can add butter, but I didn't add any butter. So we just added a bit of olive oil and just roasted it in the pan and the natural fat from the pork. And then because of timings, I finished it in the oven, but you can do it all in the pan.

20:13Angela Hartnett:All in the pan. And then you serve it with the... And once you remove the pork from the pan, then using those same juices, you toss your fennel through there and that sort of seasons and wilts in the pan. It tastes very Italian. Yes, the fennel and the pork, yeah. Fennel. Pinocchio. Yeah, exactly. Talk to me about why this works so well, because the pork and apples, sure, but pork and rhubarb, it's a compliment. It's the fattiness of the pork with the acidity and the pickling of the rhubarb. And it works with the sweetness of apples, it works with pears. It's just that fattiness cut with the pork.

20:47Angela Hartnett:That's how it works well. That's really good. Yeah. Really good. And then, do you know what? People can really mess up a pork chocolate feel. What are your top tips, Ang, for anyone that wants to try this at home? how do they not have a sad dry pork chop? Well, I always add a little bit of fat, so I'll either add a little bit of butter to give it a little bit of moistness and just take it slowly and just check it all the time. You know, just feel brave. Don't take it to as far as you think you need to cook it because it will continue cooking in the pan. That's the key, you know. So you need to be a bit brave in that sense.

21:21Angela Hartnett:And it's great with the fennel. Thank you. And the orange juice. Would you like some wine, Kevin? Yeah. Yeah, please, I'd love a glass. Yeah, what is it? There we go. So we have a chapel down, a Bacchus chapel down. It's a British wine. British wine. We knew you were coming. Crispy citrus English wine. Oh, again, to cut through that fat. There you go, you see it all worked very well. Thank you, lovely. My goodness me, there's greens as well. Oh yeah, we need the greens. What greens have we got here, Andrew? So we've got kale, basically. Blanche and then sort it down with a little bit of olive oil and a touch of garlic.

21:59Angela Hartnett:Just to sort of season it. This is my ideal working day. Oh, this is a fantastic day. I can't imagine getting better, really. If you want to try this recipe at home, all the ingredients are available, of course, on waitrose.com forward slash dish recipes. You'll find the recipe on there. You'll find the wine pairing. You'll find out how to do what Angela has done for us today. Perfect. Kevin, should we talk about your brand new show that is coming called Kevin MacLeod's Listed Britain, which is you going up and down the country to look at Britain's great buildings and tell their story. How was it to do that and to delve into the history of these, you know, iconic listed buildings?

22:43Angela Hartnett:It's a bit, when you go on holiday, you know, you think, where should we go today? Oh, is there a cathedral? Oh, is there a Roman ruin? Oh, is there some really interesting building that we can't get in because it's shut, you know, and it's not open to the public? So, in fact, they all were. We got amazing access to amazing buildings. And we also went to buildings that weren't listed. So, for example, Yes Cathedrals. Coventry, one of my favourite places in the world. Coventry Cathedral, built in the 1950s. Fabulous thing. But we also went to places like Redundant Power Station. So we went to one in Nottingham.

23:17And it's got like eight giant cooling towers. all the cooling towers of my childhood going up in, traveling back and forth to Yorkshire in our family car. The route was peppered by these great landmarks on the horizon of Lincolnshire and East Anglia. And there were these huge collections of cooling towers called cloud factories, which produced these steaming clouds above them and always connected to coal-fired power stations. Well, as we've shut them all, So the cooling towers are redundant. There were 240 in the UK. There's now 37. Wow. And they're all scheduled for demolition. So the question we're asking is, you know, should we keep one?

24:01Just maybe one? Just to have. Because somebody will say one day, why are there none left? Why are they all gone? And actually around the world, they've been used as music venues, you know, for raves, for art exhibitions, for music performances. and there's one in Venice used as an observation deck for the city, you know, for example. So I kind of think that the problem we have in the UK is there's sometimes a lack of imagination in terms of how we can reinvent our industrial heritage. We knock so much of it over because we think, let's just regenerate it. Let's create jobs with a new, exciting, redeveloped future.

24:38And it was interesting actually throughout the series discovering that that word regeneration and redevelopment is basically often, not often, usually used as a cover for demolishing something and building something that's much more profitable.

24:56Angela Hartnett:What's that one? I can't remember. You might have seen it. I've only seen it on Instagram where it's like a power plant. It's like outside of Barcelona. It's in Spain and an architect turned it into his house. Have you seen that? And it's got all the sort of like hanging garden bits inside. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. And it's like a huge industrial power plant. All over Europe. There are these amazing museums and cultural venues. There are two in Germany which are redundant steelworks, one of which is an amazing garden now, the other of which is a museum to the history of steelmaking and to the Second World War.

25:27Angela Hartnett:Now, we have actually some great photos of you on your listed Britain show. They're kind of like holiday photos, but without anyone else. Don't spoil lunch. Look at these. Look at these. They're amazing. and the Pond and Towers are amazing. They really are. That was taken in winds of, it was gusting to 50 miles an hour. Yeah. And they said, we really shouldn't be here because the maximum speed we can be around is 35. Oh. Because we're worried that they'll blow over. Yeah. Oh, shit. I mean, I just... I hope you've got a hard hat on just in case. They blow over. It would really help, wouldn't it?

26:02Angela Hartnett:Just in case. Greetings from the pub. Nice. Nice pub to stop off on. Of course. You see, the eyes are half open and the smile is half there. Love. He's like, let me just drink the pint, please. Oh, where's that? Yeah. That's Coventry Cathedral. That's Coventry Cathedral. God, it is stunning, isn't it? Fabulous. With a roof designed and engineered by O 'Arab. Oh, wow. Love. This is in a cooling tower? Inside the cooling tower. Wow. Which is the coolest place to be. Wow. It seems ridiculous that we can't use that for other stuff. It just seems, you know, it's insane. Do you want all your apples in there?

26:37Angela Hartnett:Yeah. Apple storage. Yeah. There we go. Somebody I spoke to said they'd make great data centres. For a data centre, you need loads of water. Got that because there's a river next door. You need loads of power. Oh, it's a power station. And you need to cool the equipment. So you build it in the cooling tower and then it would draw the cooler. And that's exactly what it's designed to do. Get it done. We're back here, Kevin. Well, you can see Kevin MacLeod's Listed Britain right now. You can get it on Morphor whenever you like. We've got to talk about grand designs, please. Do we? We do, we do, we do.

27:14I always thought we might talk more about the pork. We do, please.

27:18Angela Hartnett:Because it started back in 1999, and that's also the year that you, Angela, I'm right in saying, started working with Gordon. Yep. And I was thinking quite a lot of parallels between cooking and architecture. Yeah. Construction. Construction, yeah. Yeah, well, Kevin's always like, you know, simplicity is key. Yes, definitely. Your very simplicity is key. Yeah, don't overcomplicate it. Don't overcomplicate it, yeah. Less is more, all of that. In ArcGIS we start with the bones, in food you end with the bones. Yeah, exactly. There we go, exactly. What are your memories of it starting out? Because obviously now a staple on TV.

27:55Angela Hartnett:But take us back to 1999. What were your memories of it all kicking off? Would it work? Would we get a recommission? Yeah. Would it be just one to bear and his dog? Surely we'd run out of projects. Lots of thoughts like that. I mean, excuse me, I'm now eating the kale. It's all right. You can't help. That's the issue with the dish, don't you? It's a delicious dish. It is a delicious dish. Really amazing. It's lovely to eat great food. Thank you. People often ask me what my favourite project is. Oh, yeah, of course. And actually, the projects are great. The quality of the project is usually determined by the quality of the pub.

28:37Angela Hartnett:Yeah. You're near. Exactly. And it's the people. It's always the people. It's all, you know, the people. It's always, yeah. We work with them now about eight or ten camera guys and you just know them all. We're just a big family. And that's magical. And, you know, all the rest is excitement and what you see is this crafted thing. But in fact, what drives it is that, is the team, is the people behind it. What do you think, Angela, someone that's spent a lifetime in kitchens, is the key to good kitchen design. What is your, like, this makes sense? It's got to flow. Well, in that sense, it's got to make sense.

29:18Angela Hartnett:You don't ever want to be walking off too far to get anything because you're standing there, so you want your knives there. You want to open a drawer. The things you need are in that drawer. Kitchens are too big, generally. People make kitchens far too big and have too much equipment because you really basically need a good set of knives and maybe one sort of magic mix. Other than that, you really don't need much else. That's my theory. Mee sent me something because we're going to do our house and we're going to do stuff and we watch grand designs and then we do get grand ideas and then we can never settle on an idea because we're just seeing too much stuff.

29:50Angela Hartnett:Have you considered a media room?

29:55Angela Hartnett:Yeah, like we do things like, you know, we sort of lose track of what we want because we get so excited by stuff that we see. But he sent me something the other day which was like the flow of a kitchen. So he was like, you should have the fridge the sink the chopping the bin and he was like so when you're cooking oh like the hob and then he sent me that and I was like oh yeah you really need to work out the flow of it so you're not taking your thing and walking there yeah too much I think in larger households the best kitchen design is the galley because only one person is allowed in and you're close to everything and you just have a rule don't you literally there's an invisible gate at the end of the galley no one's allowed in The only thing you've then got to do is to provide a fridge and a toaster somewhere else.

30:40Yes.

30:43Angela Hartnett:I love some of the things that we have sort of gotten to know and love on Grand Designs. And people like to play sort of Grand Designs bingo. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the things that will happen, like, you know, the windows arrive and they don't fit or someone gets pregnant. I love those things. They're not related, those two things. No, not related. There's no historical correlation for that. No, there's no correlation. No correlation. The windows not fitting is a common thread. Yeah. What the hell's everyone doing, Kevin? Who's not measuring it? Blame the toughening process. The toughening process.

31:16Angela Hartnett:So the house is like... Do you really want to know? Yeah, I really want to know. It's a little bit like Angela talking about, you know, how to tenderize the meat and not overcook it. Yeah. Glass, once it's toughened, it's got a tension in it and it can't be cut. If you try and cut it, it'll shatter into a million little pieces like a car windscreen. but it's safe. That's what makes toughened safety glass, right? Most big windows are toughened for safety reasons, regs. So they're cut before they're toughened, but in the heating and the cooling of toughening, the glass distorts very slightly. It can be just a few millimetres, but then it doesn't fit the frame.

31:52So you have to make the whole bloody thing again. That's why, actually.

31:56Angela Hartnett:Oh, my God. A nightmare for those people, but great TV. Do you know what I love? Great TV. When it happens, you're like, ooh. Is there anything that you would say, because you're right, because things can go out of fashion, and then you've spent a fortune having your kitchen done or your living room done, and then by the time it's delivered and installed, everyone's got it or whatever. Is there anything that you should say, actually, these are good sort of rules to live by when you're about to start renovation? I could have thought of an answer to this a few years ago, but I now think that the internet and social media is so full of this stuff.

32:35And it's happening on such a fast cycle that anything that's fashionable right now will be out of fashion at tea time. And it's happening so fast, it doesn't matter anymore. Everything's up for grabs. And the only thing I'd say is, if you want to do a kind of, you know, Tim Burton Gothic kind of super cool kind of Jack Skellington thing in your house, then go for it. I mean, like, really go for it. I mean, the most interesting home are always the autobiographical ones and the ones that really seem to speak to you of people and their objects and their collections and the stuff they love. And the worst homes are those that just look like a catalogue.

33:13Yeah. Do you know what I mean? From a retailer, you think, well, what's the point of doing that then? Because where are you in all of this? Yeah. Yeah, the best homes are always idiosyncratic ones. And that lived in and got their life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And done with commitment and passion. And then I think it'll last probably.

33:31Angela Hartnett:So we're going to have your apples. Oh, wow, wow, wow. This is a bit of a... I mean, the pickled rhubarb is one thing, right? No, I think the apples are good. I think the pastry, I'd eat the edge of the pastry, but the pastry's a little bit probably underneath. It's you two and you're gluten-free and everything. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm so sorry. What can I say? It's all right. Sorry, Anne. I blame you two, not me. Yeah, thank you, Ange. Thank you. Well, we're used to it. It was probably you that was going to suffer the most. No, no, no, it's fine. I think it just needs a little bit more cooking. I love these little apples.

34:05Well, can you just tell me what you did here? Because I want to go home and do this.

34:10Angela Hartnett:No, just, it's vegan puff pastry. So you roll it out. Well, you don't roll it out. It's pre-bought rolled out. Crick it. I crimp the edges so you have a little bit of an edge. And then I literally just tossed the apples in a tiny bit of lemon juice and then covered all the puff pastry. in a hot oven. Probably not, you know, hot oven initially then turn it down and then a little bit of sugar on top and then I use some of the dairy-free butter as well. So a little bit of dairy-free butter. It's all great. It's beautiful. There you go. Delicious. And your apples, Kevin. Those apples are so good. This is a dish first that we're cooking with produce that our guest has brought.

34:48Angela Hartnett:Oh, really? It's so good, yeah.

34:52Angela Hartnett:Should we do Kevin's fast food quiz? Oh, God. What's that? Kevin in his time. Kevin, it is time for your fast food quiz. It's a quick fire round. We give you a category. You tell us your favourite way to eat the following. Okay. Kevin MacLeod, your favourite way to eat eggs? Post. What's your favourite sandwich filling? Banana. What is your favourite form of potato? Roast. Favourite herb? Oh, hard, but rosemary. What's your favourite bean? Bean. Big father ones. Okay, lovely. What is the best crisp? Oh, I'd like a flame grill steak.

35:38Angela Hartnett:What's your favourite kitchen utensil? Oh, at the moment, my latest acquisition from the supermarket, which is tongs. Tongs. Tongs. Love a tong. Kevin MacLeod, a big one for you. Best variety of apple? Oh, you can't. Thanks. All right. So apples are given names, often after the people that breed them. Some are given names that reflect their fecundity, the fact that they produce a lot of fruit. So my two favorites on that basis would be Slack McGirdle. Excuse me. And another one called Village Bike. Oh!

36:19I cannot find it. It's a West of England variety, I think, and I can't find it. I'm hoping, just for the novelty, someone, somebody must throw it.

36:30Angela Hartnett:Anyone who knows about Village Bike or Slap My Girdle, get attached with it. Please, please. Love that. Should we end on that? Yeah, we're not getting any better than Slap My Girdle. All right.

36:46Angela Hartnett:Kevin MacLeod, we come to the end of the show question. For your chance to win this goodie bag, all you've got to do is help us with the promotion of our show. We would love you to use your impeccable powers of narration to help tell the story of today's build, which is your meal. We have a script. We have safety. We have hard hats. We have high viz. Are you up for it? I'm always up for a hard hat. There's one for each of us. Yes, please. How often do you wear them? For a while, actually. High viz on, Ange. High viz on. Hard hat on. Kevin, are you ready to tell the story of a day of construction here at Dish.

37:28Final piece to camera. Yes, final piece to camera, please. When I first met Nick and Angela, the project they were embarking on seemed incredibly optimistic. Pork chops with pickled rhubarb and shaved fennel. But what was once a raw slab of meat has since become something quite enchanting. There's a foundation of flavors here now, a beautifully rendered pork chop, partially covered in a bold and bright rhubarb cladding. And then you have the understated shards of fennel, which draw the eye from a distance. So what Angela has done fit into the landscape stunningly well. The landscape, of course, being a plate.

38:06But it wasn't always easy peeling. There was dismay over the build's future, only this morning.

38:12Angela Hartnett:So are we done now? Can I take this nonsense off? The project had also taken its toll on Nick. It's going to be fine. But they needn't have been troubled. It's a remarkable testament to Angela's passion and ingenuity. Something really magical has come from these ingredients, delivered amazingly, under budget and on time. Yes, Kevin! The booty bag is yours. Come on. Thank you so much. I feel like suddenly I was in an episode of The Archers. Oh, thank you, Kevin. Thank you, Kevin. Kevin, thank you so much for coming to see us. Thank you. That was so great to chat. Thank you so much. And thanks for bringing our rhubarb and our apples as well.

39:00Angela Hartnett:Yeah, everything. Yeah, it's brilliant, Kevin. Can't wait for the show. Yeah. A round of applause for Kevin. God bless you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you. If that episode has left you wanting more, find us on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Just search Dish. If you want to make any of the meals I cook on Dish, head to waitrose.com forward slash dish recipes for all the ingredients and the recipes email your questions thoughts and suggestions to dish at waitrose.co.uk dish from waitrose is a cold glass production waitrose the home of food lovers