Now, I've been quite privileged in my job as a chef to travel to so many different countries, but there is a place that has it all.

From farmers to fishermen.

Planes, trains, and automobiles!

[plane whooshes] Woo-hoo!

And phenomenal seafood.

That is the finest ingredient in the world.

How good does that look?

And it houses some of the greatest chefs in the world that just happen to be a few of my mates.

How good is that?

That's sensational.

Absolutely sensational.

It's good, the suspension on a Mini.

[laughter] Where is that special place?

Great Britain, of course.

[plane whirrs] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): This is it.

We're off.

The beginning of my journey around the United Kingdom, in all its glory.

Me and my trusty crew are beginning our odyssey in the Orkney Islands.

Hence the reason for this-- jacket, jumper, thermals.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It's somewhere I've always wanted to go.

I want to take you on this journey because I'm going to learn as well, like you are, hopefully.

But I'm so looking forward to this bit, and I'm so excited about it.

This-- this is going to be special.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Made up of around 70 islands, the Orkneys are located 16 kilometers off the northeast coast of Scotland.

This archipelago is so remote that only 20 of the islands are inhabited, the largest one being simply called Mainland.

And that's exactly where I'm starting off.

My first port of call is Stromness Harbour.

But first, I have to get there.

And now, from a plane to a bus.

[festive music] Busy?

♪ ♪ What I love about these places is there are little pockets in amongst all this that produce food like nowhere else.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Stromness is one of the Orkney Islands' long-established seaports, and it's the perfect place to meet my traveling companion for the very first leg of my journey.

It's my old mate and top Scottish chef, Nick Nairn.

You enjoying the view, fella?

Mate.

[chuckle] I can't think of a better person to join me on this trip, particularly this leg, than you, really.

Well, just look at this.

This is impressive, innit?

This is amazing.

This is like nothing else.

So you're going to be traveling all over the UK, and I guarantee you'll not find another place which has a concentration of amazing produce like Orkney.

And-- and we are in the summer.

Yes.

And it's freezing.

Literally.

It is literally freezing.

But one thing that's fascinated me, I've always wanted to come here, but you can see there's relics of the past, really.

The slipways for the fishermen.

The slipways because originally, these guys were going out and rowing boats and sailing boats and all kinds of weather.

I mean, it's a hard life out here.

Yeah.

And it has created an atmosphere and a community unlike any other.

But you will find the most amazing shellfish.

You will find crabs, lobsters, langoustines.

See, I'm going to do that.

I'm going to do scallops.

I'm going to do crab.

But I'm going to send you off as well to two places that you may have not heard of before.

OK.

In the Orkney Islands, one of which is a beautiful mill.

No.

Yeah.

- And the other one-- you'll like this one-- is a distillery.

- A distillery!

- Yeah.

I'll see you in a bit.

You're talking my language, mate.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And just like that, the sun's come out to welcome us.

While Nick's off on his own little adventure, I've got to go to see a lady about some scallops.

Hiya.

SCALLOP LADY: Hiya!

Nice to meet you.

I was told that this is-- this is definitely the right place to buy scallops.

Yeah, it is indeed.

Yeah, they're hand-dived in Orkney.

JAMES MARTIN: Fabulous.

So when would these have been caught then, yet?

These were caught yesterday.

Just yesterday?

Yeah and they were shucked this morning so they're really fresh.

Well, I'm going to take six of those then, please.

SCALLOP LADY: In the shell, yeah?

JAMES MARTIN: In the shells, definitely.

- That's fine.

- Definitely.

See what else have you got?

Nice selection of fish as well.

But I have spotted Orkney butter.

Yep.

Orkney butter.

That will go nicely with the scallops, I think.

She's writing the recipe already.

OK.

There you-- JAMES MARTIN: How much do I owe you for that?

It comes to 10 pounds, please.

10 pounds?

Yes.

Lovely.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

I look forward to this.

Lovely.

Enjoy.

I certainly will.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now, I cannot wait to cook these lovely scallops.

And where better to pitch up my mobile kitchen than postcard-perfect Stromness Harbour?

Cheers.

And this is the amazing thing about the Orkney Islands, the weather can change [snaps fingers] literally like that.

We've now got blue skies.

It's fantastic.

So I'm going to do this amazing dish.

I've got some beautiful scallops.

I'm going to serve it with a black pudding apple and hazelnut butter on a barbecue.

That kind of barbecue, really.

So it's like a-- like the old version of Top of the Pops here at the moment.

So the first thing we're going to do is get on and make our butter.

Now, I've got some good old Orkney butter here.

Obviously, when you have great pasture, which this place has, it produces great meat, great cattle, but also great butter because it produces great cream and great milk.

So we've got some nice butter.

In we go with some parsley and a little bit of dill.

And then hazelnuts.

I've not toasted these hazelnuts.

These have just been roughly chopped, really.

And you can use almonds as well, if you wanted to, but just a few bits of hazelnuts.

And then some apple.

Now, I would normally chop the apple, but all I'm going to do with this apple is just basically just cut it up like that.

Keep it really simple.

And another great combination with apple and scallops is black pudding.

Now, black pudding is not everybody's cup of tea, really, but up here, you have to use and you have to eat black pudding.

That or haggis.

But black pudding is amazing.

But the great thing about black pudding, particularly from this area, is that it's not pureed.

So often with black pudding, it can taste like-- it's kind of like chewing on, what do you call those things, hockey things?

CREW: Puck.

Puck, that's the one.

But it tastes like chewing on one of them things, this rubbery, sort of dried, revolting thing.

But when it's cooked properly and simply, it should be nice and moist.

And particularly with scallops and apple, this tastes amazing.

This is one of the famous hand-dived scallops.

Now, to open one of these scallops, it's quite straightforward.

You've got a flat part of the shell, and you've got a rounded part of the shell.

Now, what you use, really, is I like to use a table knife rather than a cook's knife because it's blunt.

So if you make a mistake, it doesn't take your finger off.

And what you want to do is get the knife in and put it along the flat side of the shell, and you think it's basically attached to the top and the bottom of the shell.

What you're trying to do is loosen it from the flat side.

So you just wiggle the knife in along the flat side of the shell, rubbing the flat side of the shell like that all the way through.

And then it'll open up.

Now, as it opens up, you can lift this bit off.

Now, you have what's called the little skirt around the scallop.

But look at that beautiful piece of meat.

And then scrape the underside of the shell because you want to keep that nice scallop whole.

So it just comes off.

And the whole lot will actually come off altogether like this.

Now, when you get scallops from this part of the world, it's like a nugget of gold.

Look at it, this beautiful roe that you get but also this amazing chunk of white meat.

So what we can do is just trim this off, remove the little skirt from around the edge.

There we go.

You can trim that bit off, and what you end up with is like a little nugget of gold.

It tastes amazing.

Now, these are so good raw, so good just basically with a little bit of lemon, cured.

Now you could remove that little membrane off as well.

But I think with scallops this good, you just want to leave them as they are.

So I'm just going to pop that little fella back in the shell.

And meanwhile, we've grabbed the others like that.

And we'll just pop a couple of these in each one, I suppose.

These ones.

Now, I'm going to cook this on the barbecue in the shell so you keep the rounded part of the shell to cook them on.

So we'll just put a few of these on here like that.

Just a couple.

But look, we grab our butter and mix this together.

All I'm going to do is take the butter and just pop it over the top of the scallops like that.

And then all we do is sit this in the coals.

And what'll happen as it cooks, it'll nicely cook the scallop as well.

Because when you've got scallops this good and this fresh, and they really are fresh, one thing you really don't want to be doing is overcooking them or deep frying them.

Just simply, simply cooked.

And the best way to do that is on the barbecue.

Look at that.

And we just gently cook these now.

It'll take about four or five minutes.

I'll see you in a minute.

[light music] ♪ ♪ How good do they look?

And of course, you could cook them under the grill.

And lift them out.

And just pop them on the local seaweed.

That's the great thing about great food.

Cook it simply, with a bit of dry ice.

That's all you have to do with it.

And eat it, of course.

♪ ♪ These are delicious.

Absolutely delicious.

And with the black pudding and the apple, it's a great combination, that.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): You can't beat local hand-dived scallops cooked right here in Stromness Harbour.

Absolutely delicious.

[festive music] ♪ ♪ The Orkney Islands, famous for its Neolithic ruins, rugged coastlines, and incredible seafood.

Earlier, I met my traveling companion for this leg of my adventure, local hero and old mate Nick Nairn, who I've sent off to explore a well-kept local secret.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ So it's absolutely beautiful here, but it's also quite rugged.

And you have to be quite tough to make a living here.

And it's not just the people that are craggy, it's the animals and even the crops.

And I've come here to Barony Mill to find out about beremeal.

[mill clanking] Jack.

Nick, nice to meet you.

Very good to meet you, too.

So tell me a bit about this amazing mill.

So this is Orkney's last working watermill, and we believe we're the only mill in the whole world to keep commercially producing what we call beremeal.

Beremeal?

Yeah.

What is beremeal?

So bere is an ancient form of modern-day barley.

And it's less yield so the bere fell out of favor when modern barley was introduced.

NICK NAIRN: So what sort of properties does it have that barley doesn't?

JACK: So bere is really low in gluten and it's really high in protein.

So we call it a bit of a super food.

But if you-- you can use it in lots of different things.

You can use it in baking, in cooking.

And it's really good for things like biscuits.

But you can mix it with normal flour, and it gives it a really unique taste.

So how does Barony Mill take the grain and turn it into flour?

JACK: So it's all grown in Orkney.

We harvest in around September and it comes into the mill here.

Now, because of Orkney's pretty wet climate, we've got to dry the grain.

So it goes upstairs into a kiln, we dry it off, and then we take it into here, and it goes through our special mill stones, which are the originals from 1873, when the mill was first built.

NICK NAIRN: So are you telling me that this mill is exactly the same as it was back in 1873?

JACK: Yeah, absolutely.

Nothing's changed.

There's only been minor tweaks.

But what you're looking at is the exact same processes as when William Hepburn built the mill back in 1873.

NICK NAIRN: Wow!

Fantastic.

How wonderful to find a product that's little known, and a process that dates back to 1873, being kept alive here at Barony Mill.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm sending Nick down the road to see how some of that beremeal has been used to make something really cool.

Now I'm getting really thirsty because it's dram o'clock.

James has promised me a distillery where I can get a drink, but this looks like somebody's house.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Forgive me, Nick, because that's not the only surprise I've got in store for you, mate.

So you must be Sam.

I am indeed.

Listen, I've been promised a drink.

Yes, come with me.

[chuckle] A wee dram, no less.

Hmm.

Smells unusual.

Here's your dram.

Oh, that's unusual.

It's vinegar!

It's vinegar.

It's not any old vinegar, though.

- No.

- That's pretty special.

No, this is-- this is bere malt vinegar.

NICK NAIRN: How did it come about?

So we started off brewing beer initially, and then I had the mad idea of fermenting it again into vinegar and then aging it in matching whisky bere barrels.

NICK NAIRN: So is this made from the beremeal that they mill at Barony Mill?

SAM: Yes it is.

In fact, I used to work there, and that's where the idea was conceived.

NICK NAIRN: So what you're saying is you start off with a beer, and then you allow that beer to turn into a vinegar?

- Yes.

Yeah.

And then you age it in the casks?

SAM: That's right.

Yeah.

NICK NAIRN: But that's-- that's good enough to drink.

You could actually drink that.

You could actually-- this is fantastic.

I do quite frequently.

Yeah?

It's kind of good for you.

Is it-- Is it good for you in the way that cider vinegar is good for you?

Absolutely the same, yeah.

It's a probiotic.

- Yeah.

It's still with the mother of vinegar.

It's good for the gut.

NICK NAIRN: The gut, yeah.

Do you know, that truly is amazing.

But James Martin, you promised me a dram.

I will see you in the bar later.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Absolutely.

Yeah, you'll be lucky.

I've got something in mind for that vinegar a little bit later.

But right now, I'm going to use some of that incredible beremeal flour to whip up a simple, sweet treat.

Now, I thought with this, we'd make brandy snaps.

Now, weirdly enough, there's no brandy in brandy snaps.

It's all about the quality of flour.

So if we start off with good quality ingredients, it's only me that can mess it up.

So the first thing we're going to do is melt the butter.

So get this on the heat and just melt this down.

At the same time, we can add the brown sugar.

I like to use soft brown sugar for this.

And then, of course, we've got our golden syrup.

And pour our golden syrup into our pan.

Now, that's all we really need.

I'm just basically melting this butter.

We're not cooking it, so switch that off now.

I've got some flour here, good quality flour, and some ginger.

This is really the only flavoring that's in brandy snaps.

And then all you do is you take your mixture.

We pour this onto the flour and then stir it all together to create a paste.

And once you get to that paste, what you want to do now is just let that set in the fridge.

[energetic music] And I've got one that's already set in here.

I'll show you what we're looking for, really.

It's that kind of texture.

Now to cook these, it's always good to cook them on a nonstick tray or a nonstick mat.

And then all you want to do is just mold this into little balls, really.

It actually-- in size, it grows about six-fold, so make sure you spread them out nice and evenly.

♪ ♪ It's actually a good idea, just as you start the second tray, to put the first tray in the oven to keep ahead.

Now, I've set the oven about 360.

So it's slightly lower than a normal hot oven because you want these just to melt, first of all, before they brown.

So about 170 degrees centigrade will be fine.

Now you can pop the second tray in.

♪ ♪ Now, after a couple of minutes, we can then take these out.

They're not cooked yet.

Now, I'm going to top these with oats.

You can use the whole oats or we've got some crushed oats here, but you just put a few of these on the top.

And then pop them back in the oven and cook them for about another two or three minutes.

Now, it's a good idea to do this now, as it's nigh on impossible to do this at the beginning.

♪ ♪ Now it's a bit of a production line this bit because you've got one tray that's ready, one tray that's nearly ready.

So these can come out now and just cool slightly.

And as they cool, you can pick the tool of which to turn these into brandy snaps.

Now, I've found the best thing over the years is this.

It's a snooker cue, and it's just perfect for it.

Because what you need is a tapered bit of wood because otherwise, it gets stuck.

As simple as that.

The other ones are ready as well.

They can come out.

And when they're ready, you can just lift them off without them tearing.

But take your brandy snaps and your snooker cue.

♪ ♪ Trust me.

It works.

Looks a bit weird if you had your own patisserie shop doing this, but it does work.

♪ ♪ See?

Look.

Brandy snap.

I've been a pastry chef for years, and I haven't found anything better than this.

You can do these on a rolling pin, but they're a bit thick.

You can do these on a wooden spoon, but they're a bit thin.

This was designed for the job.

Perfect for brandy snaps.

Look at that.

So you put your snooker cue away.

And now it's all about filling these.

And for that, it has to be whipped cream, just a little bit.

And I'm going to flavor the whipped cream with whisky.

[stand mixer whirrs] [jangling music] ♪ ♪ And then you take the cooled brandy snaps and fill them up with plenty of cream.

I love this.

To be honest, I don't make them enough, but they taste amazing.

And of course, always make an odd number because-- [crunching] These taste so, so good.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): So there you have it, my brandy snaps using the beremeal flour from Barony Mill.

A touch of the Orkney Islands in a truly classic dish.

[festive music] ♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN: For my next bit, I'm going even further north.

And for that, I need another plane to meet a guy called Billy and his sheep.

How you doing, boss?

You all right?

Hiya.

Yeah.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Spectacular.

It's not the furthest north you can go.

Of course, you've got the Shetland Islands and then the Faroe Islands.

But it is absolutely beautiful.

And the further north you go, it's a bit like the place that time forgot.

♪ ♪ JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): North Ronaldsay is the most remote of the Orkney Islands.

And its human inhabitants are outnumbered by sheep.

This is a magical place.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): I'm going to meet Billy Muir, MBE, no less.

He's a fireman, lighthouse keeper, and farmer on this tiny island.

And it's his rather special sheep I'm here to see.

You must be Billy.

I am indeed.

I've waited a long time to meet you.

Well, you've done it now.

JAMES MARTIN: [laugh] Welcome to North Ronaldsay.

Now, you're a jack of all trades on the island.

- Master of nothing.

- No, come.

But you look after the lighthouse, which I can see just over there.

BILLY MUIR: I do.

I've been doing that for almost half a century, and I've a few more months to go.

And fire and rescue, you're doing that, and farming.

Now, this is-- this intrigues me.

We call it crofting.

JAMES MARTIN: All right.

It's more modest than farming.

JAMES MARTIN: OK.

Now, if I want to go see these sheep on your farm, do I have to get a taxi?

Well, I'm waiting for you.

Are you the taxi driver?

Let's go, let's go.

He's the taxi driver.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Now, the sheep here are no ordinary flock.

They're predominantly kept along the beach by a wall or sheep dike that's thought to be the longest of its kind.

It was originally built back in the 19th century to keep the sheep from grazing on grass designated for cattle.

Now, tell me about this place, because I can see the wall.

BILLY MUIR: Yes.

JAMES MARTIN: 13 miles.

13 and 1/2 miles, yes.

By hand?

By hand.

JAMES MARTIN: And when was-- Horse and cart may have helped them.

And when was that built?

Way back in 1832, they completed it.

Right.

They probably started a year or two earlier.

The sheep used to roam the whole island, and we think they'd go back 5,500 years.

And what about the diet?

I mean, they're here now because the tide's-- tide's in.

But I mean, predominantly, if not all of it, is seaweed.

It's all seaweed, and it has everything in it.

They don't get any extra feed, and they survive all winter.

So we're not talking about lamb here, are we?

We're talking about-- you take them further than-- than lamb.

We take them anything from three to five or six years.

And explain the flavor.

I mean, it's totally-- people watching this will be familiar with New Zealand lamb, for instance.

Yes.

What makes yours so special and so highly prized?

The meat would be much darker and requires much longer cooking because of the age, the fact it's mutton.

But once you have it cooked properly and tender, it's absolutely delicious.

Who cooks it in your household?

You?

Not me, I'm afraid.

It's my good wife.

OK.

And how does she cook it, then?

- Long and slow.

- Right.

Yes.

But we went to London to market it one year, and they managed to-- to do it there as well.

So it's quite possible, and I'm sure it's no problem for you to do exactly the same.

So tell me-- your wife's was better.

No, no, no, they did it in wee taste bites and that was absolutely-- Billy, Billy, she might be watching this.

[chuckle] I'm going to suggest you'd say your wife's cooking is better.

- She wouldn't claim that-- - Billy.

--if she was here today.

[chuckle] Billy, trust me, you may-- you may end up behind the other side of the wall if you don't say this.

And it is a pleasure to be here.

And after all these years, I wanted to come, but-- Well, you finally made it, but don't-- don't leave it so long again before you return.

I will.

I'll come and see whether you're still married.

[chuckle] I've been married for 42 years.

Yeah, not when this comes out, you might not be.

[laughter] JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Before I go, I can't resist playing with Billy's lighthouse.

Now, I've never switched a lighthouse on before.

Can I switch a lighthouse on?

You're welcome to switch it on.

Is that all you do?

Just turn that-- Turn that.

Turn that, and that's it?

That's it.

Away you go.

Billy, you better not-- if I get to the top and you've switched it off, I'm going to have words.

- OK.

All right?

I'll see you-- see you in about half an hour.

Yes, surely.

Or maybe-- maybe an hour.

So here we are at the top, 176 steps.

[flute music] ♪ ♪ It's incredible.

And you can see the wall.

Can you imagine what the locals must have said?

They said, right, I know what we'll do.

We'll just build a wall all the way around the island, 13.2 miles by hand, 6-foot high.

♪ ♪ Now, the old classic cliche in terms of television would be for a presenter to wax lyrical about all manner of different sort of things, wildlife, colors, endless waffle, as I call it.

I'm not going to do that.

Just look at it.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): What an absolutely amazing place.

But the real treat has been hanging out with Billy.

It's people like him that I really want to meet on this adventure.

So I'm heading back to the mainland with a big smile on my face to cook with some of his mutton and that great Orkney bere vinegar that Nick loves so much.

Now I'm going to do a simple dish of barbecued lamb or mutton with a lovely mixture of potatoes, broccoli, and a chimichurri sauce.

But it's all about this lovely meat.

Now, you can tell the quality of it by the color of it, fundamentally.

And we've got this beautiful dark color.

It's really like the best steak.

And quite simply, I'm just going to barbecue this to quickly cook it on the griddle.

So salt and pepper, nice and simple.

Touch of olive oil because it's a good idea to oil the meat rather than pour it onto the barbecue.

Otherwise, we end up with lots of flame.

And just roll that around the seasoning and just pop these straight on the barbecue.

So around the salt and pepper, they can sit on.

They're going to take about two or three minutes on each side.

Lose the paper and wash my hands, because we'll get letters.

[sprightly music] ♪ ♪ Hot soapy water.

Look at that, lovely little lamb.

Next.

So while the meat's cooking away nicely, turn our attention to our little veg with it, really And this is nice and simple.

I've got some potatoes here that have just been par-cooked.

Now, these on the barbecue are just delicious.

So just cut these in half.

It's like when you get new potatoes and you want to reheat them.

Frying them in the pan with some butter is just delicious.

But these little fellas over here, all I'm going to do is just simply take some olive oil like that.

And particularly new potatoes on a barbecue are just delicious.

So chuck the spuds on.

And they can sit nicely on there.

Another one that's brilliant is just broccoli, really.

Including the stalks, you can just basically put the whole lot on.

So again, just a touch of olive oil like that, and then pop these on.

They're just lovely.

Just leave that to one side.

Now, obviously, a classic combination with meat like this is a mint sauce-- mint, sugar, a little bit of salt, and some vinegar.

But this is a great combination.

Now, this sauce isn't local.

It comes from either Argentina or Uruguay.

It's quite an unusual sort of sauce.

It's called chimichurri.

But it's just delicious with meat like this because it cuts through any of the fattiness.

So often served with red meat, but we're going to start off with a spider [puff] in here.

Then we've got a mixture of chopped herbs.

Now, the reason why these are in cling film is because they're going to blow away.

Some coriander, some mint, and parsley that has just been chopped.

And then this is the other base for this is take a little bit of shallot.

Now, you can make this in a food blender if you want, and it goes almost like a puree.

But I actually think it's nicer roughly chopped because it adds a little bit of texture.

But I say roughly chop.

You don't want the shallots too chunky.

Look, a little bit of garlic.

You're doing a bit more garlic than you think.

This is not a pesto, so don't be frightened to put a little bit more garlic in here.

All the while, keep your eye on the lamb.

We'll just turn this over.

Right.

Meanwhile, over to our sauce.

We've got the garlic, the shallots, a little bit of chili.

Nice little bit of green chili chopped.

I'm going to pop that into our bowl together with our herbs.

There we go.

That's that one.

And then olive oil.

A touch of oil.

Pinch of sugar.

Nice bit of salt.

Salt and pepper.

But it's all about this stuff, I've got to be honest with you.

And this is the finest vinegar I've ever tasted.

It's so good, so good.

Now, I'm not doing this because I've been in Scotland for a few days now, but-- so you can't do that with vinegar you put on your chips.

That is so, so good.

And we take a nice amount of vinegar.

So this is where you get this chimichurri sort of sauce.

Just simple, really.

And then all we got to do, really, is just serve this.

I mean, you've got your plate.

You've got a lovely-- look at this.

Look at this meat.

Look.

[gentle music] It's beautiful, look.

These nice chops.

You can put a few of these on here.

Lovely.

And then, of course, you've got the potatoes.

Look.

These just color.

Really are delicious.

And then the broccoli over the top.

So we've got the potatoes, we've got the broccoli, and we've got Billy's meat, and a sauce all the way from Argentina and Uruguay.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): There are my North Ronaldsay mutton chops with chimichurri sauce, made extra delicious with Orkney vinegar.

[dramatic music] ♪ ♪ So far I've seen this amazing place by land and air.

And now I'm taking to the sea in search of something rather special.

Now, of course, when you're in the Orkney Islands, you have to do this and go crabbing.

Because that is probably the speciality food of the Orkney Islands.

While you're doing it, you can admire the view.

This is amazing.

Look at that.

Sorry, but needs must.

That is the Old Man of Hoy.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): This is what I've come to see, though.

The Merlin 2 is in full swing, bringing up pots from the seabed that are full of brown crab.

In order to preserve the stocks of this precious Orkney export, the fishing industry here is sustainably managed by the Orkney Fishing Society.

And this is exactly what it's all about.

And if proof were needed how that system works, you can see them throwing the small ones back.

They'll get them another day.

The thing that fascinates me about this is the guy pulling up the pot now is a guy called Willie St.

Clair.

He's the skipper of this boat.

He's 84.

84.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Lucky for me, Willie has chucked a few keepers my way.

So this is it, the famous Orkney brown crab that all chefs and cooks rave about.

Now, if you are faced with these live, the only way to pick them up is really keep your hands well away from these claws here.

Just grab them at the back.

Pinch them, almost.

Now, the size is quite important when they catch them because they've got to be more at the widest point than 140 mils.

That's about 5 and 1/2 inches.

Anything smaller than that, they throw them back.

Can't wait to cook this later.

The famous Orkney brown crab, one of the finest bits of seafood you'll ever taste.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And I know exactly what I'm going to make with it back on dry land.

[festive music] ♪ ♪ Now, our team was thinking, I've got to create something special.

That's what the brief was for this.

Now, in an ideal world, what I would do with this recipe is that.

And just serve it like that and go down to the pub.

But our producer wanted me to create something a little bit special, so I'm going to do a nice little crab pasta.

And for that, we need some beer, first of all.

This is not for the recipe.

This is proper Orkney beer.

I love it.

Now, we're going to simply cook this, really, really simple.

That's what we've got to do with ingredients like this.

So these brown crab have been cooked for about 10 to 12 minutes.

Now, I've got in here some shallots, a bit of garlic, some chili, lemon, parsley, tagliatelle, and fresh, white picked crab meat and brown crab crab meat.

The first thing we're going to do is take our shallots.

The reason why I'm using these shallots is that they're milder than white traditional Spanish onions, the big heavy ones.

So let's start off with a few bits of shallots.

Chop them quite small, first of all.

Like that, nice and small.

Look at that.

A little bit of olive oil just into our pan.

We're not going to color our onions and our garlic.

We're just basically just softening them because we're making a simple little sauce for this.

Some garlic, about 4 cloves for this one.

So put a few bits in, but just finely chop them.

Throw in the shallots.

Throw in the garlic.

Now this bit, you really need to concentrate on a little bit.

You don't want to burn the onions and the garlic.

You're just softening them up.

Because now we're going to add a touch of white wine.

A little bit of white wine in here.

Very, very simple to make a little sauce, about a glass of white wine, really.

Touch of that and get that boiling.

Now, while that's happening, we can then cook our pasta.

And for that, we need plenty of salted boiling water.

And I mean plenty of salted boiling water.

The great, late great Carluccio taught me to cook pasta properly.

And he said, pasta water should taste of the sea.

He was from the Amalfi Coast, not Orkney.

Plenty of salt in the water.

And then I've got this tagliatelle.

This is fresh tagliatelle.

It takes about two or three minutes to cook.

That's it.

But we put that into our pan like that.

Now, I wouldn't normally put the lid back on here, but I want this to boil.

So we'll get that on.

And then turn our attention to our crab themselves.

Now, they're very simple to prepare these, if you break them down into simple parts.

First of all, the legs.

Remove the legs, first of all, like that.

All of them like this.

Now, most of the white meat you'll find are in the little claws and the larger claws.

So just give them a quick crack.

And then you reveal this pot of gold.

Look at these-- fresh white crab meat.

It doesn't get any better.

It really, really doesn't.

But you just press them like that, and you get this gorgeous meat.

And you'll find when you get it so fresh like this, it doesn't really need lemon, to be honest with you.

Just eat it as it is.

Beautiful.

And in my mind, it's way better than lobster.

Way better.

But it has to be absolutely fresh as a daisy.

But turning your attention to the body part, you can use a knife for this or a spoon.

Put the spoon underneath.

You just lift out this center part to reveal the other part of the body part.

And what we're going to do with this one is basically just lift out this brown meat.

In this shell, you've got the brown meat.

So just scoop that out.

There's so much flavor in brown meat as well.

So we've got our brown meat ready.

That can go straight into our pan.

Scoop that all out like that.

There you go.

And then we could really stabilize this with a touch of cream, if you wanted to.

Just double cream for this one, just to bring this together as a nice little sauce.

Not too much.

You don't want a lot.

And then throw in the white crab meat as well now.

See, look at that.

Bit of that in there.

And then finally, we can get ready red or green chili or both.

It's entirely up to you which one you want to use, but we'll chop that up.

Don't have to be too fine.

Like that.

So some red chili, green chili, parsley.

You can use coriander if you want, but keep the flavors nice and simple.

So parsley, chili, and lemon is what you need before it blows away.

Probably throw this in here anyway.

So this all starts to come together.

In we go with the chili.

You could just eat this on its own, to be honest, exactly like this.

A little bit of lemon.

Touch of zest in here as well as the juice.

That's why it's a good idea to use the double cream and not single cream, because you don't want it to split.

But a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Don't worry about the pips.

We're up north.

They call that fiber.

Get that in there.

Black pepper.

A nice smidgen of black pepper.

Now-- now we're talking.

Look.

You've got your lovely fresh pasta.

Look at this.

Take this.

And it's always the pasta to the sauce.

This is all mixed in together.

Look at that.

Stir it all in.

Look at that.

So you don't have to be in the Amalfi Coast.

Sorry, Carluccio.

You don't.

Look.

You're in the Orkney Islands.

Look I'll have a quick taste.

And then we've got our nice little platter.

So look, just look at this.

Fresh crab pasta with Orkney crab.

Do you know what?

Fresh crab from the Orkney Islands in the Orkney Islands, it's a cracking dish, that.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): It doesn't get much better than that.

Now all I need is Nick Nairn.

Your honors.

Ah, mate, this looks fantastic.

I was standing over there.

I could smell it the entire time.

The garlic, the chili, the lemon.

We could be anywhere in the world because the weather-- No, you can tell that if you take your jacket off.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You can tell you're not in the Amalfi Coast.

Trust me.

What was your highlight?

It's difficult to pick.

You've got beautiful crab.

I've never tasted crab like that anywhere, anywhere in the world.

Genuinely, I totally agree with you.

That is the world-class number one best crab.

For me, that vinegar we tasted, the young guy who's making vinegar, and it was just one of those astonishing things.

Every now and then you taste something, you think, I've never tasted anything like that before.

And you didn't even know it existed.

He thought I was joking when I was sending him there.

But no, it is an amazing-- Yeah, I thought I was getting a dram of whisky.

I got a dram of vinegar.

It is a very, very special place, and so cheers.

Thank you.

- Cheers, mate.

- Thank you.

- It's been brilliant.

Amazing.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): Well, the time has come to leave Orkney and I do so with a heavy heart.

I've fallen in love with the food.

These are delicious.

Absolutely delicious.

JAMES MARTIN (VOICEOVER): And met some incredible people.

You finally made it, but don't-- don't leave it so long again before you return.

I will.

I'll come and see whether you're still married.

[laughter] In about 20, 30 years' time, if you can be bothered, if you google some old chef called James Martin, where is he now?

I'll tell you where I might be, helping Bill build his dry stone wall because I love it here.

It is very, very special.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪