Category: Posts

By request – this week we will be making – Beef Stroganoff.

A dish of sautéed beef, in a piquant creamy sauce.  The onions adding sweetness, as a counterpoint to the tangy cream and the mushrooms giving it a savoury depth.

The dish dates back to the mid, 19th century, and is named after a member of the Stroganov family, who were a group of highly successful Russian merchants and landowners: the richest businessmen in Tsarist Russia.

The first known recipe shows up in the mid 1800’s in a Russian cookbook.  It became an iconic dish especially in the US however the dishes image became tarnished by those pouring canned cream of mushroom soup over poor cuts of meat.

The best cut to use in beef stroganoff is a cut that works well with quick cooking. That means you need something that is tender to start with that you cut across the grain to further tenderise.

In Russia, you will most often find traditional beef stroganoff served over fried shoestring potatoes (French fries). In the US with pasta and the UK, with rice.  All as a way, to soak up the delicious sauce.

The key to a good Stroganoff is the steak an expensive ingredient and thus important to get the cooking technique right, making this a key focal point of this week’s class.

Points to consider;

type of pan to use

when to season

length of cooking

resting time

One of the most important things to remember is the need to remove steak from the fridge at least an hour before cooking this allows the meat to cook much more evenly, resulting in a better finish. An optimum thickness for a steak is between 3cm and 4cm, any thinner results in overcooking.

Season liberally just before it goes in the pan, and avoid peppering as it will burn leaving a bitter after taste. Season to far in advance with and you will draw moisture from the steak.

Ensure a heavy based pan gets very hot before the steak goes in, so oil (neutral- no flavour with a high smoking point) is almost smoking, and only cook one steak at a time to avoid loss of heat.

The heat is important in ensuring that the Maillard reaction takes place where the exterior of the meat browns and creates a wonderful roasted flavour.  A knob of butter at the end of cooking will add both richness and flavour.

The length of time you cook your steak completely depends on personal preference. A 3-4cm thick steak cooked from room temperature will take a minute or so on each side with a few minutes in the oven to warm through the middle – the most important thing is to get a good sear on the exterior without overcooking the inside.

Resting time is very important when steak is cooked it needs time for the muscle fibres to relax – cutting into it straight away will result in a loss of moisture and unattractive blood spilling out into your sauce.

It is very hard to achieve any degree browning on slices of meat, so for this recipe we will sear as a steak and then slice after resting.

In this week’s dish we will be using the following skills: Weighing, measuring, chopping, cutting, slicing, mixing/combining, blending, simmering, boiling, straining, searing and resting.

See you Saturday Teen Chefs.

This week our Mini Chefs will be making – Sausage Pasta – Italian Style!

A light and fresh tasty summer dish made with vibrant summer ingredients such as basil and cherry tomatoes which are roasted with garlic until they pop and blister, which offers a much lighter alternative to heavy tomato based sauces at this time of year.

We will be using fennel seeds native to the Mediterranean they are a dried seed that comes from the fennel herb, fennel seeds look like cumin and are used to flavour fish, meat and vegetable dishes, as well as breads and chutneys.

Fennel seeds, are popular in Italian cuisine, whether chopped into a salad, sprinkled over fish or as a garnish or used to add a hit of anise to cured and cooked meats and works especially well with pork.

In this week’s dish we will be using the following skills:

Weighing, measuring, chopping, squeezing and pan frying, slicing, mixing/combining, boiling/simmering and tearing.

See you Saturday Mini Chefs.

This week our Teen Chefs will be cooking – Beer and Maple sticky Chicken with Romesco sauce served with Garlic and Rosemary infused Courgetti.

We will be baking chicken to a sticky perfection in a sweet and dark ale marinade we will then make the wonderfully versatile Romesco sauce from sunny Spain.

We will be roasting tomatoes, garlic and red pepper before blending with toasted almonds and croutons.  We will be serving this with our glazed chicken, and serve alongside, courgetti infused with garlic and rosemary.

Keeping in line with seasonality this is an opportunity to use courgettes at their best between the months of June until September.  This vegetable is a variety of cucurbit, which means it’s from the same family as cucumber, squash and melon.

Courgette also known as zucchini to some, is the most popular of the squash family, its culinary uses are many and it is an easy ingredient to cook providing you don’t boil them which turns them mushy and flavourless, instead pan fry or steam, or eat raw.

When buying select small courgettes that are firm to touch with a glossy, unblemished skin. Avoid soft and oversized courgettes.  Courgettes do not need peeling. Slice off each end and prepare as recipe directs.

In this week’s dish we will be using the following skills:

Weighing, measuring, roasting, combining, blending, pureeing, frying and grilling, spiralizing, sautéing.

See you Saturday Teen Chefs.

This week we will be making – Summer Chicken Fricassée with Peas and Braised Lettuce

‘Chicken Fricassée’ is a delicious French dish which uses two techniques to create one dish.

Fricassee is the French name for one-pot cooking, fricassée therefore refers to the cooking method, not the recipe.   It is usually a dish that is cooked entirely in one frying pan, and a sauce made within, the meat is cut up and braised, and served with its sauce, traditionally a white sauce.

A classic French cooking method; fricassee is halfway between a sauté and a stew it is a hybrid method that combines both wet and dry heat. A true classic with as many variations as there are cooks in France, it relies on modest ingredients and just one pot. It’s the original French comfort food.

Fresh tarragon is at its best in summer, and used with chicken cooked in this manner is utterly delicious, our chicken will be simmered with summer vegetables to include peas as it is ‘Great British Pea Week’ and braised lettuce in a creamy, silky sauce, along with a serving of parsley buttered new potatoes.

In this week’s dish we will be using the following skills:

Searing, sweating, cutting, shredding, slicing, pan frying, deglazing, reducing, simmering, squeezing.

See you soon Junior Chefs.