In a new six-part series, Suzie Lee creates achievable and affordable dishes inspired by some of Northern Ireland’s top chefs including Alex Green…
Suzie meets some of Northern Ireland’s top chefs and gets to see how they create their signature dishes. Back at home, Suzie then takes inspiration from all she has learned in the professional kitchen. From shepherds’ pie to sticky toffee pudding and Korean crispy cauliflower, Suzie shares her easy tips to make the dishes on her home cooked menu, achievable and affordable.
Suzie Lee’s Great Food Made Simple, by Waddell Media, begins with Suzie visiting a restaurant in Londonderry where chef Phelim O’Hagan combines fresh local ingredients with French techniques.
Phelim elevates a simple scallops dish with a pine nut butter and inspired by his unique flavour combinations, Suzie demonstrates how to make nut butter. For dessert, Phelim also takes one of Suzie’s favourites to a whole new level – Sticky Toffee Pudding Soufflé – and she whips up her own version at home.
Later in the series, Suzie also visits a Georgian guest house in Magheralin, County Down that is home to husband and wife chefs, John and Louise Mathers. John makes a dish of smoked eel, horseradish panna cotta and beetroot and apple salad. In her home cook’s version, Suzie replaces the eel with smoked mackerel and serves it with an apple and fennel salad.
John leaves desserts to an expert – his wife Louise – who prides herself on seasonal desserts and she makes a creamy baked cheesecake with poached fruit. Suzie then rustles up an easy dessert which involves very little cooking – ‘Peach Perfect Pudding’.
In county Fermanagh, we meet award-winning chef John Roche, who uses local, seasonal ingredients and gives Suzie a cookery masterclass making one of his signature dishes, cured black bacon served with celeriac, carrot and apple purées, plus a black pudding bon bon.
In Belfast, Suzie visits an Indian restaurant where owner Naz Rahman has worked for more than 30 years. He gives Suzie a crash course in the best of Bangladeshi cuisine including lamb chops with tandoori spice, chicken biryani and one of India’s most loved desserts, Gulab jamun – an aromatic doughnut. Inspired by these flavour combinations, Suzie makes a starter of lamb skewers, homemade naan bread and a mint yoghurt dip and for dessert, Chinese deep-fried doughnuts known as Youtiao.
Suzie Lee:
“Great Food Made Simple is a completely different concept to any of my previous series, and this time I get to meet six amazing chefs in their natural restaurant habitat.
“I go into their kitchen with them where they make me a fabulous three course meal, which I then put my ‘Home Cook’ Suzie spin on! It was such a delight to shoot and getting to meet these fantastic chefs was just so inspiring!”
Suzie Lee’s Great Food Made Simple from Friday 16 May at 7.30pm on BBC iPlayer and BBC One Northern Ireland
