Top of the class!

Cracking Good Food are really pleased to be running a series of workshops at Dial Park Primary School in Stockport, with the help of funding from The Cooperative Membership. Four sessions will take place in total, and we're halfway through!


On Monday 24 January, Juliet showed the kids and their parents how to cook Healthy Pot Noodles. Everyone got cracking with the chopping of vegetables to stir-fry - mushrooms, leeks, carrots, onions - and it was a great chance to try out some new flavours and see how simple it is to prepare tasty, vitamin-packed food from scratch.


On Monday 31 January, Kim inspired the class with her Homemade Hotpot, cooking a wholesome warming winter stew using beans and root vegetables including beetroot, butternut squash, parsnip, carrot, potato, leek and onion. This was served with rosemary-flavoured dumplings, mustard mash and caramelised onions, and everyone agreed the end result was yummy as well as easy on the wallet.


Tomorrow, Rob will be making Fancy Fast Food from fishcakes to veggie burgers, then next week Avril will be cooking up a Curry without the Takeaway. We're really looking forward to both these classes, and hope the kids and their parents also find them helpful and rewarding.


For more photos from the school classes, please visit our Facebook page by clicking here. And don't forget to keep checking back to see photos from the upcoming classes!

Celebrating good food!

On bank holiday Monday (3 May), Whalley Range played host to the Celebrate Festival at St Margaret's Primary School on Withington Road. Events kicked off at noon and ran right through the afternoon until 6pm. Cracking Good Food was there with the Cooks On The Hop gazebo and we had fantastic fun helping festival-goers make their own lunch.

It was another great chance for Rob (below, in the white pinny) and Juliet (above, also in the white apron) to show off their Szechuan sauce stir-frys. There was an abundance of fresh produce to choose from, and hungry participants eagerly selected what they fancied, duly peeled, chopped and tossed their veg'n’tofu around the woks, and threw over coconut, pineapple and sesame seeds at the end. Even Gerald Kaufman MP popped by and was obviously delighted by what was going on.


What’s more, Laura and Anghi, two wonderful Year 10 Chorlton High School students, were keen to help out, having loved their time at the wok during Cracking Good Food's launch at Chorlton's Big Green Festival in March. We’re hoping to see more of these two… they're truly inspired chefs in the making!

Cracking Coordinator Adele

Cooks meet, February 2010

As Cracking Good Food hurtles towards its official launch at Chorlton's Big Green Festival on Saturday 27 March, coordinators Adele, Jess and Beth thought it would be a good idea to get all the Cracking Cooks together, and last Tuesday evening was set as the date.

Adele's wonderfully homely kitchen was crammed with 20 chairs and stools begged and borrowed from various friends and neighbours, and the Cracking Good Food Cooking Leaders met for a briefing about the project and a chance to try out each other's food. One by one, everybody introduced themselves to the group and described their cooking background - from restaurant pastry chefs and events caterers to local grocers and full-time mums. The coordinators outlined the aims of the network and organisation, explained how the cooking sessions and Cooks On The Hop events will work, and answered queries that were put forward.

Next came the important business of sampling the various dishes that the Cooking Leaders had brought along with them. Included in the savoury spread was a delicious homemade cheese and onion quiche, some Aberdeen Buttery Rowies straight from Rob's oven next door, Juliet's clove-laden chilli con carne, an unusual take on veggie moussaka courtesy of Unicorn's Richard and a tasty curry with lovely fresh chapattis. Steve and Jay from new deli Hickson & Black's supplied the cheeseboard and Kim rustled up a sundried tomato flatbread there and then. Anna's chocolate muffins with a cheesecake topping went down a treat for afters, while Kate's dragon cake was so beautiful noone wanted to cut into it - but we were so grateful when Jess finally took the plunge, as the sweet sponge and icing concoction was fabulous!

Clare