An array of bright, zesty flavours at Chin Chin, where the only problem was having to choose only some of the items from what looks to be a menu that is all hits, no filler.
… which is how I came to be browsing around on YouTube looking for some Nutter magic. Actually, I was hoping to get a sound file of the Simply Baking theme tune to embed here as a tribute to the Nutter. I was unsuccessful in that, but I did uncover a short treasure trove of more recent Nutter appearances.
In this clip, we not only get the Nutter magic, but the special gnominess that is Anthony Worrall-Thompson. And that’s not all! A recipe for Lancashire style Welsh rarebit – really – is yours, if you want it. Enjoy!
Occasionally I have things to do on Fridays. I know! Crazy, isn’t it?
Anyway, I have entrusted today’s Simply Baking to the IQ, so will have it safely recorded for when I get home. Of course, I doubt that I will do the Nutter justice if I were to watch and blog after Friday drinks, so I will get the post up as soon as I can tomorrow.
Foundations: Australian cricket legend Matthew Hayden is on a quest to achieve a more self-sufficient, sustainable and enriched lifestyle for his family.
Now that bodes ill. There’s nothing at all objectionable in the synopsis; in fact, it seems laudable. What will I do if Mr Hayden is not obnoxious? How will I cope if I have to change my opinion of him?
The show opens with a greeting from the man himself, who reassures us that this quest is only going to take six weeks. There will be guests, including the local producers who inspire him, and – if the previews are anything to go by – Andrew Symonds. Oh dear. I hope he’s in a later episode, as I didn’t sign up for Haydos and Roy.
After the credits, a montage of Haydos’ performances backed by the dulcet tones of Nine’s commentary team reminds us why we should give a rats about this particular personal journey. After explaining that part of the reason for this endeavour is an attempt to “relive [his] own childhood [and] hone in on the simple things in life”, Haydos is off to the chicken coop to collect eggs, commentating the process as though the hens are consciously involved in a sporting endeavour. I guess he’s got to have a selling point and the cricketing is the selling point, but if it continues it will be too much for this viewer to bear.
This is the first episode, which might account for the overdose in introduction: wife, kids, landscape designer, mum, dad and brother. This is where I discover that I can blame Kellie Hayden for the series of cookbooks.
Doesn’t time fly when you have a Nutter to look forward to every Friday? Well, it does for me, and my excitement was only slightly diminished to see that today’s episode will be all about teabreads, since really, it will be all about the Nutter (and, hopefully, the flaming shirt). Perhaps a Nutter twist will help take teabreads from pedestrian to orgasmic?
Nutter’s shirt today has no flames, unfortunately (if you are still reading, Dawn, it’s the lemon shirt that launched your creation all those weeks ago!). We start with a brief introduction to the concept of teabreads (which, I suspect, are what we might know of as “tea cakes”). We will be getting three recipes today: two sweet, one savoury, and unfortunately ALL healthy. Of course, my interest is piqued by the concept of the “millennium” version, which will apparently contain “all those delicious new flavours that are coming around at the moment”. What will they be? I’m unsuccessfully casting my mind back ten years to try to identify the flavour revolution, so am very keen on what we’ll see.
Today is souffle day, and not – as indicated by the Foxtel guide – omelette day. This is a great relief to me, not because I don’t adore omelettes (I am human, after all), but because I was struggling to understand how – even with a Nutter twist – an omelette could fall under the heading “baking”. Now I need worry no more! It’s souffle (with a Nutter twist). Two, in fact: one sweet and one savoury.
It is an orange shirt day again today, which I believe bodes well. The reason I say this is that we’ve now seen the orange shirt three times, if my memory is correct, so a revival of the flames can’t be too far away.
We’re starting with the savoury: the classic cheese souffle. Don’t be put off by the reputation of cheese souffle as a difficult dish – the Nutter tips’n'tricks will help us through!
It’s “Kitchen Time” on 7Two! And today, we’re joining Reza Mahammad on the Coconut Coast. Reza, strangely enough in this day and age, doesn’t seem to have a Wikipedia page – I know! – but the Good Food Channel and Performing Artistes have short bios. My favourite quotes from each:
The Observer Food Monthly described meeting Reza as “like being ambushed by a cross between Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Freddie Mercury”.
Good Food Channel
Okay, so I had to Google Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen1, but even before I knew who he was I liked the description.
And from Performing Artistes:
He inherited a piece of 1950′s London, flock wallpaper and all, and set about inflicting his own brand of artistic flourish. Voila; from flock to Baroque! But with his inimitable concentration span of approximately five minutes, another revamp promptly followed. This time a cross between a Zeffirelli production and the Sistine Chapel.
There are so many food shows on TV these days. How many of them offer something new or different? If Delia has already shown us how to roast a chook, do we really need to see Nigella doing it, too? And Jamie? And how many times can we watch pizza-making before it becomes aversion therapy?
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to try to add a post-a-week on a food show. New shows will take priority, but there are only so many launches in a year, so there will be recaps and round-ups of some stayers, and some that are quite possibly new only to me. I’ll also keep writing up the Nutter magic on Fridays for as long as channel 7Two continues to show it.
To kick off I’m taking a look at the show that debuted on 7Two the Friday before last: Delish. There’s been a bit of build-up to it, largely over the participation of last year’s MasterChef contestant, Julia Jenkins, so let’s see what it’s like, shall we?
Andrew Nutter welcomes us to his kitchen with an eye-bleedingly red shirt. He’s certainly not one for blending into the background, although this top is uncomfortably close in hue to the shelves to his right. I wonder what baked delights he has in store for us today?
He doesn’t keep us guessing. We’re making pizzas today, and one will be a sweet one. The other will be… Peking duck with plum sauce? Let’s start with the, ahem, savoury one then, shall we?
It’s Nutter time, although it feels like it’s been that all day today. Nevertheless, this is the real deal, with baked goods, not just ranting on street corners. What does the baking Nutter have in store for us today, apart from a lemon shirt?
“We’re barring mad” is Nutter’s introduction. He’s pleased with the phrase, so repeats it. I think is meant to sound like “barking” with an intense glottal stop. What it means is there will be bars, and we’re hitting the recipes right out of the gate. (I’ve just realised why this is such a surprise to me – I’m so used to the drawn-out start of Masterchef, that any cooking within 10 minutes of opening credits appears to be unseemly haste).
I wish I could get a MPG file of the Simply Baking theme toon. As soon as it comes on, it makes me bounce more than George Calombaris in the Masterchef kitchen. I’m going to do a YouTube search. I need this in my iPod – I think it will go well in a shuffle with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.
Today I am excited to report that Nutter is wearing the bright orange shirt that could well be the one he was wearing in the first episode I ever saw. He is excited to report that he will be making cakes. With a Nutter twist, of course.
