The Good Cook

nesbitt

I have been watching 'The Good Cook' Simon Hopkinson recently. Recording the series so can replay etc.

Prepared the Tandoori chicken from his 2nd programme in the series yesterday so cooking that for dinner tonight. Inexpensive, simple and tasty (I hope).

Quite like his somewhat laid back style and food choices.

Anyone else watching the series?

Jellybaby1

Yes, I watched one or two and think I missed some others. I quite enjoyed the programme and he is very easy to watch, doesn't keep reminding us that he is a 'God' like some other chefs on TV. Let us know how the Tandoori turned out.

Minder

Like Simon Hopkinson, love Grace Dent

The Good Cook: Grace Dent's TV OD

What's this? The Good Cook is a cooking show where the cook just … cooks? Where's the scooter? The really tight jumper?

Simon Hopkinson is a very good cook. He's a very, very good cook. On Simon's show The Good Cook (Fri, 7.30pm, BBC1), this week he constructs a simple cheese and onion pie. This is a pie so crumbly, so inviting that I've mused, no, fantasised about its splendour many times since waking today. It's just a simple pie. Three onions softly stewed in butter until vaguely caramelised, handfuls of thick grated Lancashire cheese, encased in pastry. Salt and pepper. Bake. Stick into gob.

Every TV chef needs a quirky gimmick, and Simon's is that he is "good at cooking". So Simon made the pie while using a calm, regular speaking voice. He didn't harangue, bully or shake anyone. No one had to stomp outside and cry and then come back in a stronger, better pie-maker. No one dedicated the pie to their dead dad. No one had to make the pie against the clock with a DJ Shadow soundtrack or a bald man in specs taunting them that they'd "BITTEN OFF MORE THAN THEY CAN CHEW".

Simon is not related to any famous children's authors so he did not call the pie his "Special cheesy-weesy summery oniony treasure-trove", nor did he explain it using the voice of an excitable Brownie, with illustrations of mooing dairy herds by Purple Pissing Ronnie. Simon didn't break off halfway through the pie to go anywhere by Vespa scooter, nor is he in a band so he didn't take the pie to a rehearsal of a pub-rock version of Louie Louie. Simon doesn't have a lovable yet raggedy sidekick dog so there was a distinct dearth of master/canine "scrapes". Simon made the entire pie without going down to "street level" and visiting a terrifying yet family-orientated Hispanic weaponry cartel who taught him to make the pie in an upturned refuse can beside the grave of their dead brother. The pie was only seasoned with salt and pepper, so there was no need for Simon to make a prolonged trip to his own market garden to have a long awkward conversation with a group of bobbly jumpered, knit-your-own-windchime allotment sorts in exchange for fresh parsley. Simon didn't break off midway through the pie to grate in a frozen pig's ear which he had found in the back of a pastel-coloured American-style freezer, before serving it to a gang of fragrant, compliant houseguests in a mansion lit only by fairylights, neon electric Elvis statues and shabby-chic altar candles. Simon did not cook the pie in an outdoors wood-smoked kiln. Simon did not cook the pie by taking a Clairol foot spa to pieces and rebuilding it again as a flame-thrower, and the pie looked just like a pie – not an Elizabethan shoe.

No one wore a BBC prop department wig and pretended it was the 80s or the 90s when they ate the pie. The pie contained no animals, thus we were not required to watch the animals being born and then nurtured as pets by Simon's kids over several weeks and then herded up for the big pie-plate in the sky while Simon said: "Oh stop snivelling kiddies we'll eat Blossom nose to tail and be REALLY RESPECTFUL." Simon did not wear a very, very tight jumper and make the pie sound like he was about to smear it all over his nipples in a girls-gone-wild adventure. Simon didn't do any of these things. He just made a pie very well and made me want to make it, too. This is a highly risky gimmick. For the survival of this TV column, let's pray it never catches on.

juke

Trying his grilled Aubergine with feta tonight. Not a vegetable I ever buy - hate the way it can be served brown and mushy, with a tough skin - so hoping this is a good alternative

Jellybaby1

Lol!! I've never heard of Grace Dent. She said, what I said, but better!!

nesbitt

+1 with Grace Dent...

The Tandoori chicken was foolproof following his directions start to finish. Meal was delicious and a crowd pleaser after a busy day and evening swim with two youngest. I was tired but as all the prep was done yesterday the meal was on the table without any faff or major effort. This is going on the family meal list for sure.

Have to do the rhubarb crumble next... The bacon and egg pie beckons too...:)

Jellybaby1

I made the rhubarb crumble for supper. It was delicious, but it would be of course with all that sugar! My crumble wasn't as crunchy as it was supposed to be but as I used a different dish, with slightly different quantities, and all ovens aren't the exact same anyway, I think it was pretty good. Often made apple crumble, this is my first rhubarb one. Yum!

Jellybaby1

I made the rhubarb crumble for supper. It was delicious, but it would be of course with all that sugar! My crumble wasn't as crunchy as it was supposed to be but as I used a different dish, with slightly different quantities, and all ovens aren't the exact same anyway, I think it was pretty good. Often made apple crumble, this is my first rhubarb one. Yum! Might do the Tandoori later in the week.