Best of British

Whether you choose to experiment with gastronomic science, or prefer the simple recipes, here is your chance to battle it out with hopefuls from all over Britain and prove your worth in the kitchen.

If you're stuck for inspiration, we've got a sneaky peak at some of James Tanner's very own Great British recipes with a twist to help your creativity flourish!

Beer battered fish with Sumo fries and pea and mint puree(Serves 2)

300g plaice fillet

2 baking potatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 sprig of rosemary and thyme

60g butter

Salt and pepper

Olive oil for cooking

Batter:

165ml pilsner beer

115g live yeast

95g plain flour

1 pinch sugar

1 pinch salt

Peas

200g x frozen peas

6 x leaves of mint

50g x butter

Seasoning

First thing to do is make the batter. Whisk all the ingredients together and make sure you leave it to prove for 25 minutes.

Cut the potatoes into over-sized chip rectangles, pat dry and sauté in a pan with the garlic, herbs olive oil, butter and seasoning for two minutes, just so the potatoes start to colour. Place them in the oven at 220C for 10 minutes turning once, half-way through cooking.

When the potatoes are cooked, remove from pan and drain on kitchen paper and keep warm.

Blanch the peas in boiling salted water for one minute only, drain well, put in saucepan. Add butter, seasoning and ripped up mint leaves and mash together with fork or potato masher.

Finally take fish fillets, dust with flour and dip in batter, cook in hot oil set to 180C for four minutes until golden all over and the fish is floating on the oil surface, and drain well.

To serve, stack up the sumo fries, put pea puree on plate and add battered fish on top. Serve with half a lemon.

Salad of smoked mackerel, char-grilled Anya potatoes and horseradish dressing (Serves 2)

200g mackerel fillet

150g Anya potatoes

1 head of rocket

1 tbsp chopped chives

1 tbsp creamed horseradish

6 cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp crème fraiche

Slice potatoes in half, toss in a little olive oil and cook for three minutes both sides in a char-grill pan. Drain the potatoes on kitchen paper.

Whisk horseradish with lemon juice and the two tablespoons of oil and dress rocket leaves.

Place the leaves in a bowl and flake the mackerel over the top.

Slice the tomatoes and arrange a salad then sprinkle with the chives. Finish salad with a dollop of crème fraÎche, and serve.

Maple baked pork fillet with black pudding and pear (Serves 2)

1 150g pork fillet

50g black pudding

250g x mashed potato

3 tbsp maple syrup

1 pear

Sauce:

50ml red wine

100ml beef stock

1 knob butter

1 chopped shallot

Roast the pork in a sauté pan for two to three minutes. Bake in the oven at 200C for further five minutes and half-way through baking add maple syrup by coating over the pork. After cooking, leave pork to rest on a wire rack for two minutes.

Slice black pudding, drizzle with olive oil and cook for three minutes in oven at 200C.

Slice pear, coat in olive oil and char-grill on both sides for two minutes.

For the sauce sauté shallot for one minute, then add the wine. Reduce the wine by half, add the stock and reduce liquid by two thirds. Strain and whisk in a knob of butter.

To serve, heat mash potato and arrange on plate then slice pork and arrange alternately with slices of black pudding over the char-grilled pear. Drizzle red wine sauce.