Category: Posts

This week our Junior Chefs will be making – Chilli Con Carne with Chocolate after all it is nearly Easter!

Our dish will be a Tex-Mex’ style chilli recipe with a thick brown sauce – rather than a thin tomato one.  Using dark chocolate in this chilli con carne recipe adds a delicious depth of flavour that enriches the dish.

You may or may not know, but chocolate, coffee and oregano are key original flavours of Tex-Mex cuisine. If you have never added them to a chilli before definitely try it – the flavour is amazing! You’ll never make a chilli without it again and of course chillies!

Chilli is a spice without limits. There are hundreds of varieties, all with different colours and heat levels.  As an ingredient, chillies can be bought in a multitude of forms: fresh or dried, ground or in flakes, smoked or pickled.

Ground chilli powder is more about adding heat than flavour, which makes it hugely versatile.  You can also add chilli powder or chilli flakes to virtually any dish that would benefit from a kick: sprinkle it on pizzas, add it to sauces, use it in stir fries or add to a chocolate cake.

In Mexico, chillies were traditionally smoked to preserve them for use later on in the year.  The smokiness of the paprika in this recipe adds a real depth of flavour to this dish and added ground cumin adds fragrant warmth to, which enhances all of the other ingredients.   For those not using meat the mixed beans still mean it is hearty and robust meal.

Chocolate adds a marvellous depth of flavour to stews and sauces, but a little goes a long way so we do not need to add too much.

Chocolate is one of our most popular ingredients – both to eat and to cook with.   However it is really only thought of as a sweet ingredient, but cocoa was originally used in savoury recipes.

So why does chilli and chocolate work so well?  Why is it one of the ‘wow’ flavour pairings to have made its way around the world?

Is it because chilli peppers contain capsaicin, a chemical which helps release endorphins and stimulates the nerve endings? Chocolate on the other hand stimulates serotonin in the brain, which triggers off heightened sensitivity and a sense of euphoria.  Or is it simply the fattiness of chocolate offsets the heat of chilli as in the traditional Mexican mole (sauce)?

So try it and see I think you will like it!

This week we will be using the following skills: Measuring, peeling, chopping, crushing, boiling/simmering and frying.

See you Saturday Junior Chefs.

This week our Mini Chefs will be making – Creamy Coconut Kedgeree with Smoked Fish & Soft Boiled Eggs

This kedgeree is gently spiced and creamy the rice and coconut provide an excellent base for the robust flavours of smoked fish. Easter is all about Eggs and we will be adding soft boiled eggs to our kedgeree to make a delicious dish for lunch or dinner.

This recipe was a typical breakfast dish in the Victorian days. It is often thought to be an Indian dish, but in fact it was introduced to India by Scottish soldiers.

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

Weighing, measuring, peeling, chopping, squeezing and frying slicing, mixing/combining, boiling/simmering and poaching.

See you Saturday Mini Chefs.

This week our Teen Chef will be making – Blood orange and paprika pork with creamed celeriac

Subject to availability we will be using blood oranges in our recipe they have a relatively short season, often making availability difficult.

At their sweetest in January to March, due to the drop in temperature during the cold nights that follow warm, Mediterranean winter days is what turns the citrus fruit a deliciously deep red or vivid orange.

Typically only available until March, these winter specialities are tangy and juicy, and packed with Vitamin C. They make a delicious sticky sauce for warming winter main courses and will really complement our pork.

Pork, is integral to many of Britain’s national dishes – from Pork pie to Roast pork with apple sauce, fruits are traditionally served with pork to offset its richness.  

Pork should have a slight marbling of fat throughout the cut, which should look firm and white. Every part of the pig can be eaten; from nose to tail. The key to cooking pork well is an understanding of which cooking method is appropriate for each cut.

Another important tip to remember when cooking pork is that the meat needs to be seasoned well with an array of ingredients to choose from like herbs, spices or a brine to impart flavour, or simply salt and pepper.

Like most meats, pork should be allowed to come up to room temperature before cooking and left to rest for a period after cooking.

The tender, less exercised cuts of pork are better suited to cooking quickly – either in a pan on the stove or in the oven. Overcooked pork is dry and tough, so care needs to be taken when cooking.

The cuts of pork most suited to rapid cooking include loin which we will be using in the form of steaks and tenderloin fillet.

Although we can now start to think about spring and all the fresh, exciting produce it brings, there is still an abundance of root vegetables to enjoy.

Celeriac is a firm root vegetable loved by chefs thanks to its complex celery-like nutty flavour. It’s also incredibly versatile as an ingredient, which for our recipe will be creamed which in culinary terms means food that is prepared by slow simmering or poaching in milk or cream.

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

See you Saturday Teen Chefs.

This week our Mini Chefs (5-7 yrs) will be making – Prawn Noodle Soup

This is a healthy, filling and complete meal in in a bowl. Best of all, we can cook it all in one saucepan!

Noodle soup refers to a variety of soups with noodles and other ingredients served in a light broth.

Noodle soup is common dish across East and Southeast Asia. Various types of noodles are used, such as rice noodles, wheat noodles and egg noodles. Noodle soup is a comforting bowl of fragrant goodness.

Pak choi is one of the many ingredients we will be using and is also known as bok choy, it is a leafy green from the cabbage family. Pak choi is a traditional Asian ingredient, so is often served with oriental flavours such as soy sauce.

The leaves of pak choi should be dark green and the stalks should be rigid and white. Pak choi is a kind of 2-in-1 plant – the dark, thin leaves that sprout at the top cook very quickly and are akin to spinach in consistency. The thicker stalk is firm, crunchy and refreshing. For this reason, it can be tricky to judge the cooking time of pak choi – a good option is to separate the leaves from the stalks and cook the stalks for a couple of minutes, adding the leaves in the last few seconds to wilt down.

In this week’s dish we will be using the following skills:
Weighing, measuring, peeling, squeezing, chopping, cutting, slicing, mixing/combining, boiling/simmering.

See you Saturday Mini Chefs.

This week our Junior Chefs will be making – Italian meatballs with a tomato, basil & mascarpone sauce served with tagliatelle.

Our meatballs are going to be super juicy and full of goodness including meat, onions, bread, milk, and herbs, served in a tomato, basil & mascarpone sauce.

Meatballs are known in Italy as polpette they are not served with pasta but infact bread and nearly always include two meats normally beef, or veal & pork.  (Ours will use beef and pork and turkey for those who do not eat pork).

A tip to making soft meatballs is to use a panade – which is a mixture of starch like bread mixed with a liquid like milk which is then added to minced meat.

Our sauce will be made from Passata which is an uncooked tomato purée that has been strained of seeds and skins. It originated in Italy but is used throughout Europe.

Tomato sauce and tomato paste are cooked products, which instantly makes them different from Passata.  In addition, tomato sauce often has other ingredients such as carrots, onions, and garlic, while tomato paste is cooked down to be extra concentrated and thick. You would not want to substitute either product if Passata is called for in your recipe. The best substitution is tomato purée or take plain canned tomatoes and run them through a sieve.

This week we will be using lots of skills to make our dish: Soaking mixing/combining and mashing, shaping into balls, pan frying, chopping and mincing simmering.

See you Saturday Junior Chefs.