The spice of life

It was a packed house for our spicy vegetarian class and it was great to see such a range of ages getting cracking on a Saturday morning. Kate, who is one of the chefs at Jam Street Cafe on Upper Chorlton Road, led the session as 14 keen cooks and helpers got chopping and cooking, quickly filling the domestic science room at Chorlton High School with some lovely pungent smells from fresh herbs and spices.


Spicy bean burgers were made with cumin and coriander to pack a flavoursome punch, and these were complimented with a lip-smacking Romanesque sauce using roasted peppers, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, delicious sweet hot smoked paprika, roasted almonds and homemade croutons. This was served with a vibrant salad for a healthy take on fast food that went down a treat around the table.



Click here to check out the Cracking Good Food Facebook page for some more photos from the spicy veggie class.

Happy and healthy New Year!

After the overindulgence of the festive season, diet and exercise are at the top of most people's list of New Year's Resolutions. Why not let Cracking Good Food help you kick off a happy and healthy 2011 - our latest classes start on 15 January and run on Saturday late mornings and Tuesday early evenings until 15 February.

The best guacamole you'll ever eat, from Fernanda's Mexican Tapas class.

The Cracking Cooks encourage more home cooking through hands-on classes - by cooking together and then eating together, we pass on food knowledge and share ideas for tasty, affordable meals. We’ll show you how to eat meat ethically, fish sustainably and veggie and gluten-free easily - all the ingredients we use are seasonal, organic and fairtrade where possible, and bought from Chorlton’s fantastic independent retailers. Adele Jordan, who set up Cracking Good Food a year ago, says: “The support and demand for cooking sessions has been astounding. People really enjoy getting stuck into good food when they’re shown what to do, and it’s so social too!”

Get on a bit of a roll in Breadmaking for Beginners run by Rob!

As we're subsidised by the Local Food Fund (National Lottery) and The Co-operative Membership, we can offer our three-hour classes for just £20 per person (or £15 for unemployed people, students or over 65s). The new Saturday classes run between 11am and 2pm while the Tuesday classes take place 6pm to 9pm, all at Chorlton High School on Nell Lane. Places are limited to 12 so everyone has the chance to prep, cook and eat - and ask plenty of questions!

Kate's Thai green curry will knock your socks off in our Spicy Vegetarian session.

Breadmaking for Beginners (with Cracking Cook Rob): Saturday 15 January
Breadmaking Advanced – Sourdough (with Cracking Cook Rob): Saturday 22 January
Breadmaking for Beginners (with Cracking Cook Rob): Tuesday 25 January
Spicy Vegetarian (with Jam Street Café’s Kate): Saturday 29 January
Breadmaking Advanced – Sourdough (with Cracking Cook Rob): Tuesday 1 February
Curry Up (with Kath from Unicorn Grocery): Saturday 5 February
Marvellous Meat (with Beth of Electrik’s Guestrant Wild Food fame): Tuesday 8 February
Mexican Tapas (with Unicorn’s Fernanda): Saturday 12 February
Risottos Demystified (with Kim from Islington Mill Café): Tuesday 1 March (please note new date)

Bookings can be made online at http://crackinggoodfood.org/ (our website is having a little spring clean, so bear with us!), via email (fiona@crackinggoodfood.org), by telephone on 0845 652 2572, or in person at Hickson & Black’s deli on Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton.

Vouchers are also available if you fancy treating the food-lover in your life!

New year, new classes

Here at Cracking Good Food HQ, we're really excited to be able to announce the next round of Cracking Good classes, running in the New Year.

All classes are three hours long, giving you ample time to prep, cook, chat, pick the brains of your cooking leader and sit down together to enjoy the feast you've made. Taking place in the well-equipped food science rooms at Chorlton High School, you just need to bring yourself - we supply all the ingredients, and everything is bought locally using seasonal, ethically sourced, organic and fairtrade where possible. The Saturday classes take place in the daytime between 11am and 2pm, and the Tuesday evening sessions start at 6pm and finish at 9pm; all classes cost just £20 (£15 concessions - unemployed, students or over 65s).

Saturday 15 January
Breadmaking for Beginners is back due to demand. You’ll never buy a loaf again thanks to Rob.

Saturday 22 January
Breadmaking Advanced has been introduced after many requests. Rob will be showing you how to make sourdough among other things.

Tuesday 25 January
Breadmaking for Beginners – if you missed the earlier class.

Saturday 29 January
Spicy vegetarian – green Thai curry and spicy burgers with a Catalan romesco sauce are on the menu again. Re-run with Kate.

Tuesday 1 February
Breadmaking Advanced – if you missed the earlier class.

Saturday 5 February
Curry Up – a new class with the queen of curries, Kath. We'll be making vegetable and fish versions of this ever-popular dish.

Tuesday 8 February
Marvellous Meat – another new class, legendary Beth of Guestrant Wild Food fame will be showing you how to make good use of more unusual, less expensive cuts of meat.

Saturday 12 February
Mexican tapas – this is one of Cracking Good Food's most popular classes, with Fernanda giving an authentic insight into Mexican vegetarian cooking.

Tuesday 15 February
Risottos Demystified – Kim will be showing you how to rustle up some tasty veggie risottos, often thought to be a complicated dish. This is another new class for the new year.

Book soon to avoid disappointment! And with such variation, why not treat your family or friends to vouchers to put towards their choice of sessions? Just email fiona@crackinggoodfood.org or call 0845 652 2572 for bookings and to buy vouchers.

Christmas is coming...

...and to get you in the festive spirit (and show you some great recipes for the upcoming holidays), Cracking Good Food are running four special nights of caking and baking.

Pastry chef and expert cake-maker Kate (examples of her work are pictured below) will be showing you how to make and bake perfect Christmas pies and cakes Tuesday evenings from 9 November to 7 December.

These special cake-baking classes take place at Chorlton High School between 6pm and 9pm, and cost £25 each (no concessions). To book, simply download and complete a booking form from our website, then post or email it with your payment or drop it off at Hickson & Black's Deli at 559a Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton.

Tuesday 9 November: Kate will show you how to make the perfect Christmas cake mix (for you to bake at home), mincemeat and some Christmas chutney. Please bring your own 8” round/square tin plus brandy or whiskey (your preference!).

Tuesday 23 November: We'll be baking and decorating delicious decorations for hanging on your Christmas tree plus a gorgeous gingerbread house!

Tuesday 30 November: After learning the basics of perfect pastry, Kate will help you bake some mince pies. We'll also be making marzipan and designing cakes, and rustling up some brandy sauce and brandy butter.

Tuesday 7 December: We'll be making marzipan and sugarpaste cakes, then decorating them ready for Christmas!

And if you're stuck for gift ideas, we can help with that too! Why not buy someone a Cracking Good Food Cooking Voucher for Christmas? More details at crackinggoodfood.org.

GUEST BLOG: Hot ideas in the Something Spicy class

By guest blogger JULIET LAWSON

We had a great night on Tuesday cooking all sorts of spicy loveliness perfect for the glorious weather we were having. It was a lively evening, with 11 or so talkative and enthusiastic ladies led by Kate. We were at Chorlton High School again, in one of the domestic science rooms – sorry, food science labs (showing my age)! It’s a great space for cooking in a group but there are so many cupboards full of equipment, it can be a proper challenge trying to remember where everything is kept.

We got off to a good start with yummy spicy bean burgers. There was lots of chopping and grating to the soundtrack of foodie questions and chatter. Wonderful aromas of cumin and coriander began filling the room and very soon there were a lot of bright red hands (Kate varied her recipe with fresh grated beetroot because it’s in season) as we all shaped our burgers ready for the oven.

Next we moved onto the paste for the green curry, with lots of herbs and spices including galangal, garlic, lemon grass and all things pungent and savoury going in for a good old whizz up in the food processor. We were practically transported to Bangkok on the wafting smells. After adding lots of lovely veggies and coconut milk, a few more bits of sweetness and savouriness, the green curry sauces were ready. We made one with shrimp paste and fish sauce and the other without, as a veggie option, and they tasted so different, it was startling.

To go with the spicy bean burgers, Kate showed us how to make a gorgeous thick sauce using roasted peppers, tomatoes, garlic, roasted almonds, olive oil and delicious sweet hot smoked paprika - and one last mystery ingredient, bread! A great tip for using up leftover stale crusts. The peppers and almonds went into the oven to roast, while big cubes of bread were fried in a little oil, before adding the garlic and the paprika. Mmm, talk about the most delicious smelling big fat croutons - I could have snaffled the lot there and then! They went into the food processor with some oil and vinegar, the roasted peppers and almonds, and the tomatoes, and soon we had the most tasty and stunning looking orange sauce.

Keeping with colour, we cooked some red rice to go with the curry and rustled up another vivid explosion of a salad to go with our burgers – strips of yellow courgette, grated carrot, rocket and chunks of fresh juicy tomatoes.

A quick bit of ‘interim’ washing-up and we were ready to feast. We may even have had our ‘five a day’ in one meal, and every mouthful was scrumptious! After a good old clear-up, it was time to go home to digest and rest, most people with a little parcel or two of curry paste to cook at home, or leftovers for loved ones. All in all a very successful and enjoyable evening.

There is a second Something Spicy session tomorrow (Saturday 3 July), at 11am-2pm at St Ninian's Church Hall. Cracking Good Food classes cost just £15 for three hours (£10 concessions). To book your place, simply call 0845 652 2572, email adele@crackinggoodfood.org or pop into Hickson & Black's deli.

Cooking session #4: Something Spicy with Kate

Cracking Cook Kate Mulhall (sat in the middle under the mirror) works for Jam Street Cafe on the edge of Whalley Range and is also a trained pastry chef (we can vouch for her cake-making skills!). She will be leading two sessions called Something Spicy on Tuesday 29 June at Chorlton High (6-9pm) and Saturday 3 July at St Ninian's (11am-2pm). On the menu will be, among other hot numbers, Spicy Veggie Burgers with a Catalan Romesco Sauce (a perfect barbecue option) and a Green Thai Curry.

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.

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.

Let them eat cake!

Believe it or not, this colourful fellow is a cake. And a very delicious one too. The slumbering dragon and his lair filled with treasure was created by Kate from Jam Street Cafe for our recent cooks meet using a basic sponge mix covered with special fondant icing. Kate is a trained pastry chef, so she knows what she's doing, and she'll be sharing plenty of great baking tips in upcoming Cracking Good Food cookery sessions. This magic dragon certainly went down a treat, and is a perfect idea for St David's Day on 1 March!

Clare

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