*There are more photos from this event on our Facebook page.
Showing posts with label cooking workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking workshop. Show all posts
24 November 2010
Cooking the books!
On Sunday 21 November, Cracking Good Food and Glebelands City Growers ran a session in Chorlton Library, called From Plot To Pot, as part of Chorlton Book Festival. We put an informative display together to show why it's best to buy local and the library staff dug out stacks of books on growing your own and cooking with seasonal produce. We even rustled up some tasty dishes for library visitors to try!
*There are more photos from this event on our Facebook page.
*There are more photos from this event on our Facebook page.
20 November 2010
From Plot to Pot
Join Cracking Good Food and our friends Glebelands City Growers tomorrow in Chorlton Library for a hands-on session as part of Chorlton Book Festival. Learn how to cook home-grown produce supplied by local allotments, then borrow some books to help you get started! Free family event, Chorlton Library, Manchester Road, M21 9PN, Sunday 21 November, 1-3 pm; more on the Book Festival in this online brochure, courtesy The Manchester Lit List.
13 September 2010
Food for free
On Sunday 5 September 2010, local herbalist and wild food expert Jesper Launder led a group of Cracking Good Foodies on a forage along Chorlton Brook and in the meadows and woods of Chorlton Ees. After learning to identify a whole host of different edible fruit and veg, the group got cooking in the great outdoors, making a freebie feast of garlic mushrooms, cider funghi fritters, and elderberries with ice cream. For more photos, see the special Ees album on our Facebook site.
Thanks to the workshop's popularity and resounding success, Cracking Good Food is giving you a second opportunity to join Jesper on Chorlton Ees for another wild food forage on Wednesday 22 September 5pm-8pm.
The event is the usual £15 (or £10 concessions), and booking is essential - see our website for full details. The food forage sets off from Ivygreen carpark on Brookburn Road (opposite the Bowling Green pub) at 5pm.
Thanks to the workshop's popularity and resounding success, Cracking Good Food is giving you a second opportunity to join Jesper on Chorlton Ees for another wild food forage on Wednesday 22 September 5pm-8pm.
The event is the usual £15 (or £10 concessions), and booking is essential - see our website for full details. The food forage sets off from Ivygreen carpark on Brookburn Road (opposite the Bowling Green pub) at 5pm.
6 June 2010
GUEST BLOG: Chorlton Good Neighbours puddings cooking session, Wednesday 2 June
By guest blogger AVRIL POVAH
Adele was on her jollies en France – ooh la la - so I stepped in to coordinate a cooking demo for Chorlton Good Neighbours at St Ninian's Church on Wilbraham Road. The session was on themed puddings, which Rob, our Cooking Leader, executed wonderfully, helped along by our super cooking assistants, Kate from Jam Street Cafe and Donna from Chorlton High School.
At first, I was worried that it seemed rather an ambitious menu for a two-hour session, but despite all the chopping, fruit stewing, mixing and baking, we pulled it off! Our menu consisted of Apple and Pineapple Sponge, Rhubarb and Apricot Crumble and Semolina Pudding with Prunes, accompanied by lashings of homemade custard. Each had plenty of fruit content, but as they were also laden with fat and sugar, we explained straight away that puddings aren't nutritionally balanced and we cannot live on sweet dishes alone (I wish), but that they're to be eaten as a treat and not over portioned.
The sponge was delicately spiced up with cinnamon, while the hint of ginger in the crumble really made all the difference in tasting at the end of the session - truly delicious. Rob was a brilliant raconteur, relaying passionate stories of ingredients and origins of food, together with his vast knowledge of working in the food industry.
You can join Rob for his sessions on Cooking With Fish The Sustainable Way on Tuesday 8 June at Chorlton High (6-9pm) and Saturday 12 June at St Ninian's (11am-2pm). Meanwhile if the thought of puddings has tickled your fancy, Kim will be running a session for the general public on Tuesday 15 June at Chorlton High (6-9pm). All details on the June and July sessions, which cost just £15 for three hours (£10 concessions), are on the Cracking Good Food website here.
Avril is on Cracking Good Food's team of Cracking Cooks and will be running a public session called Tasty Salads With Pulses'n'grains on Tuesday 22 June at Chorlton High (6-9pm). She also works for Nutrimens and The Sunshine Cafe in Sale.
Adele was on her jollies en France – ooh la la - so I stepped in to coordinate a cooking demo for Chorlton Good Neighbours at St Ninian's Church on Wilbraham Road. The session was on themed puddings, which Rob, our Cooking Leader, executed wonderfully, helped along by our super cooking assistants, Kate from Jam Street Cafe and Donna from Chorlton High School.
At first, I was worried that it seemed rather an ambitious menu for a two-hour session, but despite all the chopping, fruit stewing, mixing and baking, we pulled it off! Our menu consisted of Apple and Pineapple Sponge, Rhubarb and Apricot Crumble and Semolina Pudding with Prunes, accompanied by lashings of homemade custard. Each had plenty of fruit content, but as they were also laden with fat and sugar, we explained straight away that puddings aren't nutritionally balanced and we cannot live on sweet dishes alone (I wish), but that they're to be eaten as a treat and not over portioned.
The sponge was delicately spiced up with cinnamon, while the hint of ginger in the crumble really made all the difference in tasting at the end of the session - truly delicious. Rob was a brilliant raconteur, relaying passionate stories of ingredients and origins of food, together with his vast knowledge of working in the food industry.
You can join Rob for his sessions on Cooking With Fish The Sustainable Way on Tuesday 8 June at Chorlton High (6-9pm) and Saturday 12 June at St Ninian's (11am-2pm). Meanwhile if the thought of puddings has tickled your fancy, Kim will be running a session for the general public on Tuesday 15 June at Chorlton High (6-9pm). All details on the June and July sessions, which cost just £15 for three hours (£10 concessions), are on the Cracking Good Food website here.
Avril is on Cracking Good Food's team of Cracking Cooks and will be running a public session called Tasty Salads With Pulses'n'grains on Tuesday 22 June at Chorlton High (6-9pm). She also works for Nutrimens and The Sunshine Cafe in Sale.
2 May 2010
GUEST BLOG: Taking part in a Cracking Good Food cooking session
By guest blogger RICHARD FROST
Cooking is universal. Everyone has to learn to cook at some point, which is why I find it baffling that basic cookery classes are so hard to come by. So when I was invited to take part in a session organised by Cracking Good Food in Chorlton, I jumped at the chance.
I was one of the first paying punters to have a go at a Cracking Good Food cookery class after stumbling across their launch day at Chorlton's Big Green Festival 2010. Well, I say "paying", but the token sum I handed over must barely have covered the cost of the ingredients. Rock bottom prices aside, I'll admit that another key motivation for signing up was the growling of my stomach as lunchtime beckoned. It was clearly time to eat.
Thankfully, the dish of the day was a vegetable stir-fry – a fabulously quick meal that takes longer to eat than it does to cook. I've made stir-fry dishes plenty of times in the past but I still found this session invaluable thanks to the friendly Cracking Cook and his constant stream of top tips and practical pointers.
For instance, I learned that cutting vegetables into thin matchsticks ("julienne") is better for stir-frying because they cook through quicker. I learned that sunflower oil is better than olive oil because it reaches much higher temperatures. And I learned that mushrooms should be tossed in towards the end because they release water that risks turning stir-fried vegetables into boiled vegetables. All simple things for an experienced cook, no doubt, but useful insights for an amateur like myself.
I was very impressed by my first Cracking Good Food cookery class and I'll definitely look out for their events again in future. It was great value, great fun and a great introduction to cooking something different. But most of all, I reflected as I wolfed down my vegetable stir-fry, it truly was cracking good food!
Richard Frost is a copywriter and press officer who lives in Chorlton. Follow him on Twitter here.
Cooking is universal. Everyone has to learn to cook at some point, which is why I find it baffling that basic cookery classes are so hard to come by. So when I was invited to take part in a session organised by Cracking Good Food in Chorlton, I jumped at the chance.
I was one of the first paying punters to have a go at a Cracking Good Food cookery class after stumbling across their launch day at Chorlton's Big Green Festival 2010. Well, I say "paying", but the token sum I handed over must barely have covered the cost of the ingredients. Rock bottom prices aside, I'll admit that another key motivation for signing up was the growling of my stomach as lunchtime beckoned. It was clearly time to eat.
Thankfully, the dish of the day was a vegetable stir-fry – a fabulously quick meal that takes longer to eat than it does to cook. I've made stir-fry dishes plenty of times in the past but I still found this session invaluable thanks to the friendly Cracking Cook and his constant stream of top tips and practical pointers.
For instance, I learned that cutting vegetables into thin matchsticks ("julienne") is better for stir-frying because they cook through quicker. I learned that sunflower oil is better than olive oil because it reaches much higher temperatures. And I learned that mushrooms should be tossed in towards the end because they release water that risks turning stir-fried vegetables into boiled vegetables. All simple things for an experienced cook, no doubt, but useful insights for an amateur like myself.
I was very impressed by my first Cracking Good Food cookery class and I'll definitely look out for their events again in future. It was great value, great fun and a great introduction to cooking something different. But most of all, I reflected as I wolfed down my vegetable stir-fry, it truly was cracking good food!
Richard Frost is a copywriter and press officer who lives in Chorlton. Follow him on Twitter here.
20 March 2010
Cracking Good Food official launch
Cracking Good Food's official launch is approaching fast and a week today (Saturday 27 March), we'll be rocking up at Chorlton's Big Green Festival with our Cooks On The Hop gazebo!
Chorlton's Big Green Festival gives people the chance to sample sustainable living in fun and friendly surroundings, putting environmental issues centre stage with a vibrant and varied programme of live entertainment, activities and workshops. The festival is a really great showcase for local suppliers of tasty, responsibly sourced food and drink, and this year there will also be plenty of info about grow your own and allotments as the theme is "growing locally".
Cracking Good Food is really pleased to be involved and we'll be running our unique Cooks On The Hop sessions on the day, which kicks off at 11am. Make sure you pop in to the school hall at St Clement's where Cracking Cooks Avril, Rob and Lorenzo will be in action, rustling up sensational stir-fries. You get to choose your ingredients, chop them up then combine them in a wok with one of the fabulous sauces blended just for you. The best thing is you get to eat your creation, so you'll have plenty of energy to enjoy the rest of the festival!
Chorlton's Big Green Festival gives people the chance to sample sustainable living in fun and friendly surroundings, putting environmental issues centre stage with a vibrant and varied programme of live entertainment, activities and workshops. The festival is a really great showcase for local suppliers of tasty, responsibly sourced food and drink, and this year there will also be plenty of info about grow your own and allotments as the theme is "growing locally".
Cracking Good Food is really pleased to be involved and we'll be running our unique Cooks On The Hop sessions on the day, which kicks off at 11am. Make sure you pop in to the school hall at St Clement's where Cracking Cooks Avril, Rob and Lorenzo will be in action, rustling up sensational stir-fries. You get to choose your ingredients, chop them up then combine them in a wok with one of the fabulous sauces blended just for you. The best thing is you get to eat your creation, so you'll have plenty of energy to enjoy the rest of the festival!
Clare
19 December 2009
Cracking Christmas, December 2009
Hats off to all those who braved the cold to take part in our Christmas dinner cooking workshop at Chorlton High School on Thursday 17 December. Cracking Good Food had heard that the supermarket ingredients that go into an average Christmas dinner travel a combined distance of over 49,000 miles before they even get to our plates, so we challenged Nina to find an alternative that wouldn't cost the earth. Nina's 5-8pm session (co-hosted by Action for Sustainable Living as part of their I'm Dreaming Of A Green Christmas campaign) aimed to show how easy it is to create a delicious festive feast on a budget, avoiding unnecessary airmiles by using locally sourced ingredients and cutting back on excess waste with top tips on using up leftovers.
After first shedding their own layers, the group was straight into peeling parsnips, stripping sprouts off their stalks and rinsing the soil from the "dirty" carrots (here's one of the participants, Bernard, looking on eagerly!), and it wasn't long before the kitchen began to fill with some lovely roasting smells. The apple gluhwein soon warmed everyone up and there was a great atmosphere as we all sat around the big table together, chatting and tucking into the tasty dishes that never seemed to stop coming from the oven. It might not have been Christmas Day, but the party spirit was definitely in abundance and everyone was sorry when it was time to leave – although when they did, they had plenty of new ideas and a good bundle of recipe sheets to try out at home!
After first shedding their own layers, the group was straight into peeling parsnips, stripping sprouts off their stalks and rinsing the soil from the "dirty" carrots (here's one of the participants, Bernard, looking on eagerly!), and it wasn't long before the kitchen began to fill with some lovely roasting smells. The apple gluhwein soon warmed everyone up and there was a great atmosphere as we all sat around the big table together, chatting and tucking into the tasty dishes that never seemed to stop coming from the oven. It might not have been Christmas Day, but the party spirit was definitely in abundance and everyone was sorry when it was time to leave – although when they did, they had plenty of new ideas and a good bundle of recipe sheets to try out at home!
Clare