The Good Cook - Fridays 7.30pm BBC1

degsyhufcdegsyhufc Posts: 59,251
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Award-winning food writer Simon Hopkinson shares his passion and expertise as he creates truly delicious meals. Drawing on his years of professional experience, Simon shows how food fit for a restaurant table can be made at home.
With useful tips and tricks of the trade, Simon demonstrates how to make a delicious-yet-simple pasta dish, scallops in a white butter sauce, his famous salad niçoise, a fantastic coq au vin and an irresistible sticky toffee pudding.
Across the series Simon will introduce the ingredients he cannot live without. In this episode, Simon shares his love for Italian porcini mushrooms and anchovies.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012gg7q/The_Good_Cook_Episode_1/

Recipies
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b012gg7q
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Comments

  • SolarSailSolarSail Posts: 7,678
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    Just starting now on BBC1, Simon Hopkinson is a food/chef/cook/author hero of mine so I hope he delivers in this news series.
  • Andy BirkenheadAndy Birkenhead Posts: 13,450
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    I'm Sky plussing it while watching Corrie !
  • QuizmikeQuizmike Posts: 5,972
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    I had it on in the background. Brilliant soundtrack!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 200
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    What a load of middle class shit,
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 21,093
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    I'm hungry now
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 11,110
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    redpower wrote: »
    What a load of middle class shit,

    What? So you don't go out to your 'local' wine merchants to bag an expensive bottle of plonk just to cook your chicken stew in then!? ;)
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 87,224
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    I'm defintely going to try that coq au vin recipe
  • SolarSailSolarSail Posts: 7,678
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    redpower wrote: »
    What a load of middle class shit,

    How classist! :p
  • StansfieldStansfield Posts: 6,097
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    redpower wrote: »
    What a load of middle class shit,
    I wouldn't put it the same way....but I get, where your're coming from.:eek:

    It's awful.....:(
  • stud u likestud u like Posts: 42,100
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    redpower wrote: »
    What a load of middle class shit,

    What were you expecting? The Middle Classes defecate.
  • Billy_ValueBilly_Value Posts: 22,919
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    to la di da for me, a bag of chips and a light ale will do me
  • AdamDowdsAdamDowds Posts: 2,598
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    That pudding at the end looked lovely!
  • kate1kate1 Posts: 347
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    I was hoping he would really bring justice to coq a vin, its not made with chicken its made with a cock. Sorry but same old recipes churned out.
  • agatha_crispiesagatha_crispies Posts: 31,321
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    Yet another London-centric cooking show where some old Etonian waltzes into his favourite delicatessens in fashionable postcodes and cooks a load of crap that we've seen before. Pointless.
  • kate1kate1 Posts: 347
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    Yes pointless
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 11,110
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    I bet he couldn't beat my cheese on toast with beans on!

    Btw, there is another thread somewhere....
  • kate1kate1 Posts: 347
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    Very dissapointing, he should have made the coq a vin with a cock its not made with chicken
  • SolarSailSolarSail Posts: 7,678
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    The idea of this programme is to improve ordinary cook at home dishes. Sourcing true cock birds is difficult for most people in the UK and very expensive ... so that would be totally self defeating.
  • stud u likestud u like Posts: 42,100
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    kate1 wrote: »
    Very dissapointing, he should have made the coq a vin with a cock its not made with chicken

    I can't say I have ever seen a cock in the butchers or the supermarket.
  • SolarSailSolarSail Posts: 7,678
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    I can't say I have ever seen a cock in the butchers or the supermarket.


    He recommends Poulet de Bresse 'Label Anglaise' but says himself that 'they are not exactly on every supermarket shelf'

    Seems to me people are being snippy for the sake of it. One complaining about not using a cock bird and others saying he's elitist :D

    He's from Bury, he started working in kitchens as an apprentice in France at the age of 17 and opened his own restaurant aged just 21. He cooked for Elizabeth David and was highly commended by her. He was an Egon Ronay inspector. He still part owns a Restaurant after retiring from his cheffing career and has published several books which have sold in massive figures.
    I'd quibble with anyone who thinks he doesn't know how to make authentic coq au vin, he's making a good dish accessible to more people that's all. If he'd said 'this dish must only be made with a cock bird' no doubt the BBC and message boards would've been flooded with complaints.
  • alternatealternate Posts: 8,110
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    I can't say I have ever seen a cock in the butchers or the supermarket.

    I once saw Piers Morgan in Waitrose.

    Seriously though. I have seen Capons (castrated roosters) in the butchers but they usually sell for more per kilo then the hens - ironic as roosters are considered inferior and were once cheap meat for stewing. I think there is a serious lack of supply as commercial farming kills most of the males as chicks.
  • degsyhufcdegsyhufc Posts: 59,251
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    I've seen Hopkinson before on a couple of programs but never read any of his books. He comes across well but I don't like the music or panoramic visuals.
  • kate1kate1 Posts: 347
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    Poulet de Bresse is a breed of chicken originating from the Bresse area of the Rhône-Alpes region of France. The birds are highly valued for their rich, gamey depth of flavour, yet with fine, tender flesh and delicious, clean-flowing fat The chickens have a clear reddish-pink tone to the flesh and pronounced yellowish fat. Bones are surprisingly light for sturdy, outdoor-raised birds. Poulet de Bresse are reared to exacting standards by small farms in a small designated area around the city, protected under French and European law (Appellation d’origine contrôlée) since 1957 - the first livestock to be granted such protection. AOC status was granted based on the unique characteristics of flavour given by local soil and grain, as well as the dedication of the local farmer's association to protecting quality. For example, stocks are limited by the size of the farm - with a minimum allocation of ten square meters for each bird. Diet and slaughter times are also strictly controlled.

    Price: £ 23.99 inc VAT

    Its a speciality of a region of France. Not cheap.

    Sorry I lived in France Coq a vin is Coq a vin, tastes absolutely nothing the same as the original dish, made with chicken. Its called coq a vin because its made with a cock - chicken does not resemble this dish at all, its depth of flavour, which chicken does not have.
  • I, CandyI, Candy Posts: 3,710
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    Well, I enjoyed the programme. I don't care how "middle class" it is - I thought everything looked really tasty and well within the abilities of the average cook. I'm definitely going to have a go at some of these recipes.
  • kate1kate1 Posts: 347
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    The dishes are fine, but boring, old and all been done before. Non creative non different and same old same old. So we had pasta bake with Porcinis (ceps), cheese sauce chucked on pasta and baked. Scallops done two minutes either side. Its so old and so boring and so done before. I think thats why Heston turned to the scientific side.
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