♪ I'm Prue Leith-- cook, restaurateur, cookery school founder, and writer of 15 cookbooks.

Looks good, doesn't it?

I'm in my 80s, so I haven't got time to waste.

This series is all about the things that really matter to me-- family, fun, food, and friends.

And some of those friends will be joining me.

We will be sharing simple home cooked recipes...

I don't normally tell people about that bit.

Only people I like.

Ha ha!

Prue, voice-over: and celebrating the best produce.

For 47 years, I have been lucky enough to live in the astonishingly beautiful Cotswolds.

And my long-suffering husband John is coming along for the ride.

Can you make that?

Um...under instruction.

Prue: Today, award-winning musician, presenter, and restaurateur YolanDa Brown cooks me her favorite family dish.

I should have been boiling the pasta at the same time.

This happens at home.

I always think it's going to be a quick dish.

It never happens that way.

You've got me interrupting the whole time.

[Laughing] Prue: John is outside checking on our bird boxes... John: Any sign of owls?

and will be making his favorite, trifles.

John: Well, I'm delighted because if it was one of my final meals, I would have a trifle.

I hope it won't come to that.

Welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.

♪ Prue: I love teaching cooking.

It's so rewarding.

I truly believe anyone can learn.

Just follow the recipe, and it will work.

This is a recipe I love to teach 'cause once you can do it, you will be able to make any casserole or stew.

I'm going to start with coq au vin, which is a classic French dish.

♪ I always use coq au vin in my cookery school because it sounds so posh and French and sophisticated, but it's really just a chicken stew.

And everyone would go home absolutely astonished at how clever they were to make such a delicious, amazing, sophisticated dish.

I start by jointing the chicken.

You can, of course, get the butcher to do this, but I think it's a good skill to know.

Start by pulling the legs away from the carcass and cut through the skin, avoiding cutting into the flesh.

You see?

Like that.

And then we turn it over.

If you've ever had a roast chicken, you'll know that the best part of it is this thing called the oyster, just next to the backbone, where if you take the knife round it like that, it'll come off with the leg, which is rather nice.

You don't want it left on the carcass because it's the best bit.

Separate the thigh from the drumstick.

So keep the skin on, because in the skin is where there's a lot of flavor, so that's going to go in my dish.

Remove the backbone from the body... and set aside to make stock later.

And then it's really important that the wing gets a bit of breast because to be honest, if somebody gets all that breast and somebody else just gets this miserable bit of the wing, it's not so good.

So I cut them with a good chunk of breast left on the wing like that.

And I use a pair of shears.

And then you have quite a nice neat piece there.

♪ Repeat the process with the other side of the chicken and fill the dish.

Now we need to marinate this chicken.

It's going to soak in wine basically.

So I've got about a third of a bottle of wine here-- between a third and a half a bottle.

So wine all over.

And then it needs flavoring.

And this is called a bouquet garni.

This is parsley, thyme, celery, and bay leaf.

And that's a classic bouquet garni.

And it's tied up with string for the simple reason that you can then fish it out at the end without having to fish for all the little bits in the stew.

And there we are.

Then I chop up some garlic and add it to the chicken before leaving the dish to marinate.

Ideally, you put this in the fridge overnight, and ideally, halfway through the middle of the night, you'd turn all the pieces over so that both sides get properly marinated.

♪ If you don't have time to marinate the chicken overnight, just pop it in the fridge for as long as you can.

♪ This is one that's been in the fridge, and you can see the wine has changed to looking quite sort of milky almost.

These pieces have been turned over halfway through the marinade so that they're nicely colored on all sides.

So I'm now going to fry them, but obviously, I have to drain them first, and I want to keep the juices, so I'll stick everything in here.

I've always said anybody can learn to cook.

Well, actually, I have completely failed with a few people, notably my mother, who was the worst cook I've ever met.

She was absolutely terrible.

If I went there for lunch, she would say, "Oh, darling, I've just made a little 'slugel' for lunch.

And I'd say, "What's a slugel?"

And she said, "Well, it's just everything "that's in the fridge.

I've just put it all together and mixed it up.

It's delicious."

It was disgusting.

I mean, she used to take every leftover without thinking of whether they go together, and mix them up in a frying pan, and it was not good.

I'm going to use some clarified butter to fry with.

This pan is nice and hot.

[Sizzling] The reason I use that is because you can heat it much more.

It doesn't burn in the same way that ordinary butter burns.

♪ And then you fry both sides.

When you've got both sides brown, then you can take them out.

♪ That frying is what gives everything its flavor.

Now, once you've got a pan looking like this, you need to be a little bit careful because if that residue gets too brown, it can burn and it can make it taste rather bitter.

So I'm going to do something called deglazing.

You can do it with wine or with water.

And I'll do it with wine since that's what we've got sitting in the bowl here.

This is going to sizzle like crazy, but I'm going to put some wine in it... ♪ and use the wine to sort of wash the bottom of the pan so that I get to that nice brown juice as you see.

♪ Now I need to fry all the other bits and pieces.

I'm starting with a bit of bacon, so about three rashers of bacon.

I'm going to put the shallots in now.

They can go in.

I think I'll put the mushrooms in as well.

♪ Once you've got everything fried off, you then put it all back in the pan.

[Sizzling] Oh.

[Chuckles] A bit hot.

So now I need to just pop a bit of garlic into here.

Crushed garlic... and then stock.

♪ And now we're going to just put the lid on it and simmer it for about 40 minutes, gently.

Don't let it bubble.

I absolutely love to travel, and it was my years in Paris as a student that really gave me my desire to be a cook.

I was a au pair working for a family and the woman who I worked for, she was an amazing cook, and she, like all the rest of the French that I've ever met, are obsessed with talking about food.

She cooked for the children, and the children ate exactly the same meal as we ate.

And I thought, "That's the way to live," you know, that kids should eat what their parents eat.

So anyway, I got hooked on food.

I think our chicken must be cooked by now.

This has to go in and out and come up.

It's just absolutely tender now.

And you can see that the flesh has shrunk back a little bit.

So I'm going to take the chicken out... put it in the serving dish.

One of the most important things about dishing anything up is best side forward.

So you want the nice smooth tops.

If you look at the color of this sauce, it's brown.

Lots of coq au vins look purple, and that's nearly always because the wine hasn't been reduced and boiled down.

To thicken the sauce, mix together a tablespoon each of flour and butter and whisk it into the liquid.

I think that looks quite good.

OK.

So then I'm going to put the sauce all over the coq au vin.

When you've got all the sauce on it, the classic thing, when I learned how to do this in the sixties, the only herb that you could buy fresh was parsley.

We put chopped parsley on just about everything.

One day, the Beatles came to my restaurant.

Just wanted to fry up a breakfast.

And so I said, "Sure, well, we'll make you breakfast."

And Ringo said, "Don't put any chopped parsley on top of it."

And I said, "why would I put chopped parsley on eggs and bacon?"

And he said, "Chefs put green stuff on everything.

I'm expecting chopped parsley on ice cream one day."

And actually, he had a point because we do.

I think even Ringo would approve of the green stuff here, though.

Put that on the table with a bowl of rice and pretty well nothing else.

Coq au vin.

Welcome back to my Cotswold Kitchen.

Before my guest, YolanDa Brown, arrives, I want to show you a couple of tricks I have for squeezing limes.

They're often really very hard to squeeze.

There are two tricks to making the juice run in it.

♪ One is to really give it a hard rub, so that instead of feeling bullet hard, it feels squashy.

And what's happening is all the little membrane pockets that hold the juice are getting ruptured, and that makes it easier to squeeze.

So now it feels much softer than it did before.

The other trick is to put it in the microwave just for 30 seconds or so.

In it goes.

Microwave.

Start.

[Beeps] [Microwave beeping] So now my lime is definitely hot, so I'm hoping it will be very juicy.

So I thought we'd do a little test.

Because it's soft, I can squash it.

See if we can get any more out.

OK. Now let's just try a cold lime and see if it produces as much.

I can hardly get any juice out of it at all.

So you can see one has much.

This one has given me much more juice than the other.

And they've both given me sore wrists.

I'm hugely gregarious, and nothing beats sharing food with friends.

My guest this morning is the award-winning musician/ composer/broadcaster/ soon-to-be restaurateur...

Yes.

YolanDa Brown.

Welcome to my kitchen.

Thank you very, very much.

So good of you to come, really.

Well, thanks for having me.

And I can't wait to cook for you.

What came first in your life, a love of food or a love of music?

I think it was both.

My dad has an amazing record collection.

He always played such a mix of music, so from opera to classical to reggae right from Jamaica, ska, everything in between, Motown.

And then Mum would be in the kitchen.

So it's almost like music and the smell of Mum's cooking together is home.

[Laughs] Well, it sounds wonderful.

And what's more, I'm getting hungry.

I know!

We've got to get started, haven't we?

Tell me what you're cooking today.

So today I'm going to make you a creamy pasta dish with some bacon and some salmon thrown in.

♪ It means the most to me because this is a dish that we were on tour in Australia and my daughter said, "Mum, you know, I'm going to cook for you."

So with the help of my mum got all the ingredients, and she cooked a variation of this.

So I'll get started, then.

In fact, I think the first thing I'll do is chop up an onion.

Why don't I chop?

Yeah.

Just diced because we're going to fry that up a bit later.

I'm trying to cut an onion quietly...

I know!

[Laughs] so that I can hear you speak.

This is my daughter's dish.

And actually, you know, for a busy musician/ working mum who wants to get sort of real ingredients into the children, this is a really good dish because they love the pasta.

They love the salmon.

They do.

They love pasta and cheese.

And you're sneaking some peas in there, I see.

Peas.

They do love peas, actually.

So that's good.

So, yeah, they love every bit of this.

Cooking something that they can be a part of is always really important as well.

I think we might have enough because I've done half and you've done half.

Yours are more finely than mine.

That will be all good.

Thank you very much.

Lovely.

And then I'll do some garlic.

My daughter really likes sort of a crispy top on the salmon.

Today I'm going to add a bit of Cajun spice because-- and I use it on everything.

I use it on chicken on, you know, loin steaks, which I absolutely love making.

So what are you going to do with the salmon?

So quite simple, actually.

Just a bit of salt and pepper.

But because we are gonna have a little bit of flavor today, I'm going to add a little bit of Cajun.

So just smooth that over a little bit.

And some--not too much.

I'm going to put this on the grill while we do some pasta.

I do find that salmon takes the flavor really well, doesn't it?

It does.

It does.

Let's see.

OK. Good stuff.

Now, where would I put this?

Going in here?

Yeah.

A good place.

Amazing.

Stick it in there.

Prue: Cook the salmon under the grill for 15 minutes.

YolanDa: Good!

I'll cut up some bacon.

OK.

So this is always a piece de resistance.

Um, shall I help you chop that?

Oh, yes.

Were you gonna chop it all?

Yeah.

The more, the better.

OK, I'll take some of them.

Thank you.

So, YolanDa... Yeah?

Tell me about the restaurant.

Oh.

Oh, I can't wait to invite you down.

It's called Soul Mama.

Soul Mama.

Soul Mama.

What a great name.

It's that experience of music and food together, so there'll be seated about 300 people.

There'll be a stage right in the middle, kitchen at the back, probably with some glass.

You know, the chefs are part of the production.

Cooking is theater.

Cooking is theater.

The all-important bar.

It will be a mix of African, Caribbean, and Brazilian food.

And we did an amazing Kickstarter campaign because, of course, it's very expensive to do these things.

And we managed to raise the most a restaurant has ever raised on Kickstarter at £250,000, which has been really... Oh, I'm so impressed.

Thank you!

And the great thing about that is that those investors are all invested not just with money but with interest.

With interest.

And they will come and bring their friends and say, "This is my restaurant."

Yes!

What a great story.

[Sizzling] Ohh.

Sounds good.

How was the experience for you?

Prue: I was so ignorant.

I had never had a restaurant.

I'd never worked in a restaurant.

Yeah.

I just knew that... What kind of restaurant I wanted.

And rather like you, I wanted to fill a gap.

I think now I spend all my time saying to people, "Before you go into the restaurant business, "work in one, so you know just how hard it is..." [Laughs] How hard it is.

"how awful the hours are and lousy the pay is."

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I think your bacon's about done.

I think it's about done now.

It's not a bit too crispy, but that's all right.

We'll just put that on here.

Right.

I read the other day that you have a YolanDa Brown Award.

Yes, the Drake YolanDa Award.

Yes.

For me, it was really important to invest in, the rising stars are the future of music.

I should have been boiling the pasta at the same time.

This happens at home.

I always think it's going to be a quick dish because 15 minutes and 15 minutes.

The salmon and the pasta should go at the same time.

But, no.

Never happens that way.

Ha ha!

Yes, but you've got me interrupting the whole time.

I'll stick that in when it boils.

Thank you.

And I think I'll do the onions.

What goes on with the rest of that?

So I'm going to do the onions and garlic now.

Right.

When you go on tour, does your husband come with you or...?

We're usually quite a touring family.

It's only now that the children are older, they have to go to school.

But before that, we would all just go on the road.

You'd all go.

Ha ha!

What are some of the guests that you remember coming to your place?

Well, we were lucky because I had a lot of publicity.

We had the Stones and the Beatles and all sorts of sixties icons and actors like... Oh, my goodness.

Alec Guinness.

Everybody came.

Right.

How about the sauce?

Yeah.

I'll get going with the sauce.

So I'm going to just grate a little bit of parmesan while they're here.

And halloumi.

We do love cheese in our house.

I'm interested about grated halloumi.

I've never used it like that.

Oh, really?

No.

I fry it, or you have it on salad.

Yeah, well, this was from my mum, actually.

I remember-- I don't know the name of the pasta that looks like little bowties.

Oh, it's farfalle.

Thank you.

And she used to make that with just some mint and some grated halloumi on top.

So, YolanDa, you've got in there the bacon and the salmon... And the salmon.

and the onions.

And the onions.

And I'll flake up the salmon.

And then we're going to add the creamy bits.

So I've got some creme fraiche.

Smooth it down a bit.

Keep it a bit warm.

And I kind of like that this never comes out the same way twice, a bit like a piece of music for me.

Yeah.

You kind of have your ingredients.

But I think that's what I love about touring live as well.

The band and I, we could be really into something.

Someone plays something, and it takes us into a whole new direction.

And I think I really, really love that about music, really.

I'm gonna put the parmesan into the sauce.

OK. Lovely.

We can actually just fold this in.

I think we're good to go.

Yeah.

Oh, yes.

That looks so good.

Oh.

Bless you.

I hope I've done enough sauce, but, yeah, I think it's good.

It looks absolutely beautiful.

I'm gonna grab these bowls.

I think we can plate up.

Lovely.

Oh, yes.

Yes.

Go for it.

Give us a sprinkle.

Isn't it pretty?

Isn't it pretty?

Can we eat it, though?

Let's eat it.

Let me see if I can get you a fork.

[Laughs] I serve myself the biggest one.

That always happens.

Well, I know where there's more.

[Laughter] Mmm.

Absolutely delicious.

And it's quite unusual.

Yes.

It's not a pasta taste.

It's that Cajun.

You can taste it.

And what about the halloumi?

It is lovely.

Now you've had it grated.

It's very good.

Thank you.

It really is good.

[Laughs] Prue: Welcome back to my Cotswold kitchen.

My beloved husband John is always up to something in the garden.

And today is no different.

When we moved to this house three years ago, our aim was to make our garden a sanctuary for wildlife, particularly birds.

And right now John is outside with Jimmi, the bird expert, talking about bird boxes and learning all he can.

♪ Jimmi, we'll go and have a look at the raptor box we put up.

Why did you choose, particularly which side of the tree and where on the tree to put it?

Barn owls need a big open tree with a nice open flight path that's next to open countryside.

If you want to go ahead and do the honors and block the hole.

Right, yeah, OK, There's the blocker.

Make sure the same doesn't happen as last time.

Ha ha!

Well, I didn't realize how big and how strong these owls are.

Prue: To ensure a bird doesn't fly out when they open the bird box, John uses a blocker to cover the top hole.

I have to put a lot of pressure against this, as you can see, by the bending of the pole.

If they fly out, it's like a male punch.

Any sign of owls?

Yeah.

Loads of signs of owls, lots of feathers.

Any pellets?

Pellets?

Yeah.

John: Here.

I'll take them.

Prue: Even without owls in the box, we can learn a lot about them from what they leave behind.

Jimmi: And so these are the regurgitated remains of all the small mammals that barn owls predominantly eat.

And so inside this pellet will be the fur, which is the dark stuff, and the bones.

And usually, there's a skull or two in there.

And essentially, by dissecting owl pellets, one of the things we can do is we can find... Oh, that's a jaw.

Yeah.

We can look at this in closer detail to try and work out what species the barn owls have been eating.

Then, obviously, the greater diversity of prey inside an owl pellet means that obviously, the environment, the habitats are really good.

It's valuable information.

All of this stuff that we're finding inside here-- There's another lower jawbone from another shrew.

So it's a positive.

Even without seeing an owl, we know that you've got them in the box.

Jimmi, let's pop over there and see if there's any owls in the raptor box just across the field.

Do you think they'll still be here, Jimmi?

Last time you came, we found a couple.

Fingers crossed.

I mean, this is the time of year now when birds are dispersing and spreading about, and a nest box like this is perfect for them, So if you want to go ahead and do the honors and block the hole.

Right.

Yeah.

OK. ♪ And here's...

Right.

So this is your first Middle Brookend barn owl.

Can you see all the heavy speckles on her?

Yeah, yup.

So that means it's a female.

So the majority of females will have that heavy marking and the males will be all white.

All I want you to do, John, is put your hand around her there just gently, and then just hold her feet.

They don't look terribly attractive, the feet.

No.

Well, so this is, of course, what does all the damage.

So if you're a small mammal, that is the sort of coup de grace.

That's what, that deals the final blow.

That looks like it could do me damage.

Yes.

Yeah.

So what we're going to do is we're going to ring her.

And that way if we ever catch her again in a box or one of my colleagues somewhere else in the local area catches her, they'll be able to tell where she's come from, how old she is, obviously, and so on.

She's very patient.

And all this data gets fed back to the BTO, so the British Trust for Ornithology, so it's part of a much wider database that enables us to monitor barn owls.

And as you can see, that's perfectly free moving.

And there we go.

And what's she going to be doing during the winter?

So she's just roosting.

She will find a mate, and they will hold a territory, and, hopefully, come the springtime-- Could be anywhere from May onwards-- we'll have barn owl eggs.

We'll come back and check the box.

Right.

So I'll just pop her back, John.

Ashley: Well, I'm delighted we have our first barn owl.

She's so beautiful.

Well, Jimmi, success.

Ashley: Anyone who knows me knows I love anything to do with chocolate.

A lot of cooks have trouble melting chocolate or dealing with chocolate, so I thought I'd show you two infallible ways to do it.

So one is to simply put the chocolate into a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

It's very important that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water, as you see the chocolate just heats very nicely and gently.

That's one way.

The other way is just stick it in the microwave.

So here we go.

You don't want the chocolate to burn, so give it a quick blast and check on it after 20 seconds.

All right.

Well, as you see, this is melting perfectly well.

Just wonderfully smooth and luxurious and beautiful.

White chocolate is trickier and melts faster, so watch it very carefully.

And if you want to make ganache, just stir 200 grams of chopped chocolate into 300 mils of boiling double cream.

And you just melt the two together.

I'm going to use this later because we're going to make a trifle with chocolate in it.

So we've got a lovely, smooth ganache.

And those are a few of my tricks for melting chocolate.

Spending time with family is key for John and me, and if food is involved, even better.

Whilst on the subject of chocolate, I have a food hero whose story I want to share, and it's particularly close to my heart.

My name is Peta, and I'm an artisan chocolatier, a mother to two children, and a niece to someone you may well have heard of.

Prue: Yes.

That's me.

Peta: Growing up, I was very close to Prue.

We used to spend a lot of time together.

Our two families, you know, we'd often sort of have Sunday lunches, and Christmas-- We would always alternate.

Prue: Peta shares my love of cooking and worked at the Ivy in London for ten years.

I would be starting at sort of 6:00 in the morning and often not finishing until about 1:00 in the morning, and then back in at 6:00 the next morning after that.

It was incredibly intense but definitely not something I wanted to carry on with those kind of hours once I had kids.

Prue: Peta decided to combine her skills as a pastry chef with working from home.

I bought a chocolate mold just to sort of play around with making molded chocolates and really enjoyed it.

Prue: Having realized her love for chocolate, Peta went and studied at the Barry Callebaut Chocolate Academy to learn the ropes of managing a home business, and it was a steep learning curve.

Peta: I think I probably was a bit naive going into it.

I've had a lot of mishaps along the way.

I left cheffing thinking that the hours were not family-friendly, and as it is, I now work even more crazy hours than I did before.

But at least because I'm working for myself, I'm able to work in the middle of the night and stop at 3:00 to go and get my kids.

So, you know, I have the flexibility, but I also have the quantity of work to get through.

Prue: Anyone who's worked with chocolate knows it's not easy.

There's a real art to perfecting it.

Peta: With chocolate, it's so particular about the temperatures and the humidity, and everything has to be exactly right.

So I've melted the chocolate, and it's now at 34.3 degrees.

So it needs to come down by about a degree before I can add the tempered cocoa butter.

Any higher than 33.8 and all the form-5 crystals will melt away.

So if it's too cold, the tempered cocoa butter will set and you'll have a hard bit of it in there, so it has to be just the right temperature.

So this is now coming down to 33.9.

So we're getting there.

Prue: Peta now makes a selection of chocolate bars, bonbons, and truffles.

But learning to work with chocolate has come with its challenges.

Peta: Every time the season changes, you have to slightly adjust how you're working with the chocolate.

I remember last Christmas, I had gotten into a good groove, where my bonbons were turning out really nicely and the mishaps were few and far between.

And then it got colder, and suddenly the chocolate wasn't coming out of the mold.

So all these things I sort of have just discovered along the way.

The temperature is 32.

I've added the tempered cocoa butter, so this should now be in temper.

But in order to check that, I'm going to dip the tip of a knife into it and see how it sets at room temperature on that knife.

Put the end of the knife in that, and then I'm going to sit it down, and if it is tempered, it will have set and it'll be firm to the touch.

So the fact that when I touch it, it's not fully set yet, but when I touch it, it's holding its shape slightly, it's making peaks, so that I know that is on its way to setting.

Sustainability is a really important one to me.

Having young children and worrying about the world that they're going to inherit, I have spent a long time sort of finding packaging that's all biodegradable.

My ribbons are made of paper raffia.

I use compostable packing peanuts when I'm in my postal boxes.

And also, the sort of ethics of the chocolate is important to me as well.

So I only buy from suppliers where they have sort of programs in place which gives back to the cocoa-farming communities and helps sort of build schools and put money back into those communities.

I started off making a small selection of bars-- maybe six bars and one selection of bonbons.

I had absolutely no idea if it would be a success or not and whether anyone would want what I was making, and I'm pleased to say they seem to.

[Chuckles] Prue: I absolutely love desserts, and with the help of John, I'll be rustling up not just one but four instant trifles... apricot and amaretto fruitcake trifle; red berry and brandy trifle; chocolate, rum, and orange trifle; and croissant and ginger trifle.

I'm joined today in my kitchen by my darling husband.

Oh, ho.

Dear, dear.

[Laughter] So, John, you'll be pleased to hear that we're going to be making trifles.

Well, I'm delighted, because if it was one of my final meals, I would have a trifle.

I hope it won't come to that--Ha ha!-- but we're going to make four kinds of trifle.

The first thing we have to do is whip the cream.

Hop to.

Yeah.

Right there?

Bang in there, and then you can turn it on.

Anything I know about your trifles is the very rare occasion you make a duff cake.

You look at me and you say, "This is going to be a trifle."

I know.

It's a double whammy.

Now watch what's happening.

It's getting thicker, isn't it?

The great thing is not to go too far because you turn it into butter.

OK. And we don't want butter.

Are you watching mine?

I'm watching yours and mine.

What you want is to get it to the state, so when you do that... OK.

I think I might switch it off before I do that.

it'll hold its shape.

Yup.

Stop.

Stop.

Any more and it'll be too much.

So I'm now going to give you a demonstration of instant trifle.

So we've got some custard here, which is straight out of a packet but a very good packet and double cream whipped, so that's two ingredients.

Then you need the bready stuff.

For this one, you do need a fruitcake of some kind.

So this is for leftover Christmas cake or for currant buns, anything that's-- Don't think in our house there's ever leftover Christmas cakes... No.

Oops.

This is what you might call very crumbly cake, but it won't matter because it's going to go in a trifle.

And then you have to spread it with whatever the jam is.

In this case, it's apricot jam.

That's what husbands are for.

I was waiting for that.

Heh.

And then you spread your piece of cake with jam.

In this case, because it's so crumbly, you just dollop a bit of apricot jam on it.

I'm trying not to get crumbs into the jam.

There we are.

And then you put the booze on it.

This is Disaronno.

It could be amaretto.

But you want to put a good deal of booze in it.

The whole point, as far I'm concerned, is the booze.

Or rather, the slightly boozy combination of custard and booze, I love it.

How much went in there?

Was it a... About a tablespoon.

A tablespoon?

Yeah.

I reckon a tablespoon per person.

Right.

But I mean it depends.

If you're doing them for children, perhaps not so much.

Then you need a layer of custard... and then you want a dollop of cream... and then some apricots.

These are dried apricots on top of that and then some toasted almonds.

Now, these toasted almonds came out of the packets, but I don't think they're very well-toasted.

So I'm going to stick them in the microwave and toast them some more.

So they're going in the microwave.

Anyway, I'll try and remember to watch it.

Shall we get on with yours?

OK.

In your case, you're doing one with Panettone, oranges... And do I cut this or do I cut through it?

No.

Like that.

Like that.

OK. Rum, chocolate, oranges.

Perfect combination, classic combination.

Presumably you don't want crust, so... Don't mind.

Yeah, crust is fine.

Is it?

You only need one slice because you're only doing one.

Can I leave the crust?

I think this looks nicer than that.

Yes.

OK. And then spread some of the chocolate.

Instead of jam on this one... Oh, I see.

OK. you've got chocolate ganache.

OK, can I take this one as well?

No.

You only need one, darling.

You're only making one.

OK. Too much chocolate or about right?

No, no.

About that.

A bit more round there.

John: So presumably like that?

Prue: Yeah.

Push it down.

OK. Now you've got to soak it with booze... OK. Prue: which is rum.

John: Can I put a generous tablespoon?

You can put as much as you like.

Oh.

Ha ha.

Right.

That's fine.

But I think you'd better tip it a bit to make it soak into--all round.

I'm liking this already.

This is going to be a very boozy trifle.

Let me see if my nuts are burnt.

I can smell them.

They're done.

Right.

Well, we definitely have them done.

Actually, I won't put them on yet because they're blazing hot and we need to cool them.

Otherwise they will melt my whipped cream.

So... And now you get a dollop of custard?

Custard.

OK. Yeah.

Do I just sort of keep going until...?

Yeah, just as much as you think.

Right.

A bit more, I think.

Cream goes on next, then the oranges.

And you've got those chocolate truffles, too.

You use half a truffle each round there rather than a whole one.

Does it matter if it's...?

No, it doesn't matter?

not perfect?

Have I ever minded if things aren't perfect?

[Laughter] Can you remember the first and only meal I ever cooked with you?

It was haggis.

And you wooed me on haggis, and it worked.

It did, so...

It makes you stay for breakfast, doesn't it?

Ooh, Prue!

Ha ha.

Prue: Just ten minutes in, and that's two trifles made and two to go.

They really are quick and easy.

I think you should start with a classic red berry sponge trifle with brandy in the sponge cake... OK. and raspberry jam on the cake.

So now you know how to do it.

OK. OK.

I shall watch you.

Ha ha.

Do you mind if I waste a bit of cake to get a decent sized bit in there?

No.

When it looks like enough, put the jam on first.

I think it's easier with a spoon.

There we go.

Not too much, because you've only got a very thin cake there.

Right.

In fact, I... And should I take a bit off there?

Yeah.

OK. Is that all right?

Yep.

Put 'em in.

And in they go.

Side by side.

There we are.

OK. That in there.

And then you soak that with brandy.

And this is the generous tablespoon, was it?

Well, whatever.

I wouldn't put too much because brandy is so strong.

Sup, sup.

OK.

I think you could put a few raspberries in there, too, because-- What, now, before the custard?

Yeah, because it'll fit in a few more.

Right.

There we are.

Yeah.

Just 2 or 3.

And then do around the edge?

Yeah.

Perfect.

Custard?

Custard.

Blob of cream, then, John?

OK. Good.

And raspberries.

I'm going to do raspberries around the edge.

OK. Can I do that?

Yeah.

I think you've got to do one more because we can't have 4.

Oh, yes, I can't have 4.

I don't know why, but the eye just likes uneven numbers.

OK.

So you need to make it 5 or 7.

A bit like in the garden, threes and fives.

Threes and fives.

OK.

I rather like the leaf on it.

There we are.

OK. John, you might find yourself doing the puddings in future.

Am I coming for an inside job?

Ha ha!

Yeah.

Well, the last one we're going to do is a little bit more unusual.

It's a croissant trifle, a stale croissant.

They're never nice the next day, but they're quite good if they're full of booze.

So if you slice them up.

Do we slice them diagonally?

No.

But I like that shape better, so it's very difficult to jam them if you pull them apart, because you get these curly bits that are difficult to deal with.

So I'm making them into slices, like that.

And my jam in this case, it's marmalade.

So this is going to be a marmalade-advocaat, which, it's really an eggnog, this stuff.

It's very boozy, and it's Dutch.

OK. Can you open that one?

Yup.

So I'm going to put marmalade on my croissant, which is classic, isn't it?

It's breakfast, isn't it?

Could you use apricot?

You could, but the point is the marmalade.

OK.

The taste of marmalade and ginger are so good.

You could use ginger marmalade.

But I'm going to put some stem ginger in on the top anyway.

So... push them down.

Just so.

All over it and then custard... and cream... and stem ginger.

Prue: The combination of the ginger, creamy booze, and marmalade is just wonderful.

You'll notice that my decoration is random and untidy, and yours is all planned.

Ha ha!

Prue: So that's four gorgeous trifles, all made very quickly and very simply with shop-bought ingredients.

Right.

OK, in we go.

All right.

How you hold these things.

Okey-doke.

I need to get down into that little boozy bit at the bottom.

You've got to dig into the cake bit.

That's such a good combination because Disaronno is slightly almondy and the toasted almonds are very almondy.

So you get the booze and the nuts.

It's just lovely.

And the apricots go really well with it.

This is the... Chocolate, orange, and rum.

OK. Mmm!

Very good.

I didn't get so much boozy taste after that.

Mmm.

Is that because it's milder?

Mm-mm.

I think you got the edge of the cake, where there wasn't any.

Dig in a bit.

Hold on.

Ha ha!

I'm going to find it.

Better?

Found it.

Ha ha!

Good.

Dig into the ginger and apricot.

You love apricot, don't you?

I do.

There we are.

Did you get that?

I did.

That is definitely boozy.

Lovely.

It is lovely.

The ginger is so good.

But I tell you what, I'm going to sort of cut it out first.

You need to have it with a bit of ginger.

I will.

Look at that.

So I love them all.

Mmm.

Do you know, they're all excellent?

From now on, you're making the trifle.

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