Category: Posts

This week our Teen Chefs will be making – Duck Ragu

This recipe is perfect for the colder nights as it offers a warm, comforting hearty meal.

The Gressingham Duck is a well-bred duck and is a unique breed that first came about when the flavourful Mallard was crossed with the larger Pekin duck, now renowned for its superior taste and succulence making it a favourite amongst restaurant chefs.

Because of its rich flavour, duck is often regarded as one of the fattier meats. However, while that may be true of the succulent skin and breast, duck leg offers a much leaner meat that is still rich in protein. Duck leg lends itself well to slow-cooking, braising or confiting, until the meat is tender and falls off the bone with the slightest of touches, yet it can also be served on the bone.

We will slow-cook the duck legs and then shred from the bone to make an indulgent ragu, using red wine as our base which will ensure we end up with a rich pasta sauce.

Skills used include:
Roasting/Braising, shredding, sweating, reducing, boiling, draining, slicing, chopping, mixing, combining.

See you Saturday Teen Chefs!

Hi Mini Chefs

This week our Mini Chefs will be making – Prawn, Mango, Apple & Sweet Potato Curry

As it is National Curry Week our Mini Chefs will showcase their kitchen skills and cook up a curry feast! Giving us an excuse to enjoy the nation’s favourite dish!

The first National Curry Week took place in 1998

Celebrated each October it applauds the diverse culture in the UK and as a result of this, the many delicious dishes available to us on a daily basis.

National Curry Week has three main aims:

1. Honour the nation’s favourite cuisine.

2. Celebrate the burgeoning Indian restaurant industry.

3. Raise money for poverty focused charities.

#NationalCurryWeek

Donations can be made at http://curryforchange.org.uk/donate making a difference to the lives of families across Asia and Africa.

This is a really tasty curry dish and the mango and apple adds an extra special fruity flavour with a sweet taste to make this a truly delicious curry that children can make and enjoy to.

Making it a perfect introduction to curry and mild spices.

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

Weighing, measuring, peeling, chopping, boiling/simmering and frying.

See you Saturday Mini Chefs.

This week our Junior Chefs will be making – Chicken Jalfrezi 

As it is National Curry Week our Mini Chefs will showcase their kitchen skills and cook up a curry feast! Giving us an excuse to enjoy the nation’s favourite dish!

The first National Curry Week took place in 1998

Celebrated each October it applauds the diverse culture in the UK and as a result of this, the many delicious dishes available to us on a daily basis.

National Curry Week has three main aims:

1. Honour the nation’s favourite cuisine.

2. Celebrate the burgeoning Indian restaurant industry.

3. Raise money for poverty focused charities.

#NationalCurryWeek

Donations can be made at http://curryforchange.org.uk/donate making a difference to the lives of families across Asia and Africa.

Chicken Jalfrezi is all about big flavours and tops the list as one of the UK’s favourite curries, with tender, juicy chunks of chicken in a spicy tomato sauce studded with stir-fried onions and peppers.

The key to the smoky taste is to blister the green pepper skin when stir frying. Onions and green pepper go in to hot oil and cook until the onion turns brown.

The dish requires a lot of prep but less cooking time.

Chicken Jalfrezi doesn’t have a long tradition in India. It was a dish developed by cooks of the British Raj as a way to use up leftovers using a cooking technique introduced by the Chinese. Instead of the braising the chicken and peppers together for hours like most curries, the ingredients for Jalfrezi are quickly stir-fried which preserves the flavour and texture of the peppers and onions.

We will add a secret ingredient, Nigella seeds. The spice is often mis-named black caraway, black cumin or black onion seeds. It has an anise-like flavour with hints of onion, but Nigella Sativa is unrelated to caraway, cumin or onion. They add a wonderful fresh herbal flavour that takes this dish to a whole new level.

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

Weighing, measuring, peeling, chopping, crushing, boiling/simmering and stir frying/ roasting/browning.

See you at the weekend Junior Chefs.

This week our Teen Chefs will be making – Prosciutto Wrapped Cod with a Lemon Cream Sauce served with Pea & Mint Pesto Spaghetti

Cod is an extremely versatile ingredient with a subtle flavour and pearly white flesh which is complimented beautifully by Italian salt-cured ham – Prosciutto.

We will be serving this with a pea & mint pesto.  Pesto is a process of pounding fragrant ingredients to make an aromatic sauce that shares an affinity with pasta.  Ours will be a little different to the way pesto is usually prepared, we will be adding leek for extra depth of flavour.  In addition, there are also no nuts in this pesto giving it a smoother texture.

We will top the dish with a cream sauce that is tangy, buttery and creamy.  The base of this sauce will be a velouté which is one of the five mother sauces of classical cuisine.  Like béchamel, velouté is thickened with a roux. Whereas béchamel has milk as its base, velouté is made with stock.  We will be finishing our sauce with cream and lemon juice, making it similar to that of a Supreme sauce but ours will be served on top of our fish thicken enough to hold its shape.

Skills used this week include:
Boiling, draining, blending, mixing, making a roux, making a veloute, whisking, zesting, juicing, wrapping, roasting.

See you Saturday Teen Chefs.

This week our Junior Chefs will be making – Creamy Chicken Alfredo with Garlic, Parmesan & Leeks

This is a classic pasta dish when made from scratch is delicious.

We will be searing our chicken until golden and combining it through a super creamy garlic parmesan alfredo sauce, with the pasta cooked within the dish.  The sauce will be made from a base of chicken juices, butter and leeks. Chicken stock and double cream will be added and then simmered down to a rich consistency. Chicken breast adds some necessary protein and parmesan cheese adds to the creamy factor as well as bringing a welcome salty, tangy element to the dish.

This week we will be looking at leeks, it is one of the few vegetables that are at their best during the autumn months.  It is packed with nutrients and crucial anti-oxidants.

Available (September to November) the British leek is a fantastically versatile vegetable that adds flavour and bite to many dishes.

Leeks are from the same family as onion and garlic they are an allium vegetable.

What to look for when buying; is a leek that is nice and firm, they can be cooked in many ways, steamed, stir fried and can be used in lots of dishes like soups and casseroles.

Two techniques we will be focussing on this week will be sweating and searing.

The purpose of sweating is to draw moisture out, concentrating the flavour and enhancing conversion from starch to sugar. Cooking the onions in this way releases their aroma and reduces the bitterness they exhibit when raw. Cooking at a low heat, the onions will become soft and translucent any emitted liquid will evaporate. 

Searing is a technique used in grilling, sautéing, etc., in which the surface of the food is cooked at high temperature until a browned crust forms on the outside before finishing at a lower temperature.  Our chicken will be cooked in this way to give us added flavour.

Skills used this week include:

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