NEW CLASSES ANNOUNCED!

Tuesday 1 March – Risotto
Vegetarian; £20; 6–9pm; Chorlton High School, Nell Lane, M21 7SL
Learn the traditional Italian techniques of risotto-making with vegetarian chef Kim from Islington Mill. You'll master a two-grain squash version plus wild mushroom and tarragon.

Saturday 5 March – Pizza SORRY, THIS CLASS HAS BEEN CANCELLED!
Vegetarian; £20; 11am–2pm; Chorlton High School, Nell Lane, M21 7SL
Bake your own delicious handmade pizzas and calzones using seasonal ingredients. With Richard from Chorlton's own cooperative grocery Unicorn.

Saturday 12 March – Fish & Veggy Curry SORRY, THIS CLASS HAS BEEN CANCELLED!
Fish/vegetarian; £20; 11am–2pm; Chorlton High School, Nell Lane, M21 7SL
Back due to popular demand: Kath from Unicorn will be cooking up fish and vegetable curries and even homemade naan bread to serve with them.

Saturday 19 March – Cupcakes
Vegetarian; £20; 11am–2pm; Chorlton High School, Nell Lane, M21 7SL
Newcomer Deanna from North Star Deli and Electrik's Guestrant will be baking a range of unusual cupcakes (courgette and carrot, anyone?) and showing how to decorate them.

Saturday 26 March – Wild Food Foraging
Vegetarian; £20; 1pm–4pm; Chorlton Ees (meet opp Bowling Green pub).
Another chance to forage and cook up early edible shoots, leaves and springtime mushrooms. With herbalist and wild food expert Jesper Launder.

Saturday 2 April – Sustainable Fish
Fish; £25; 11am–2pm; Chorlton High School, Nell Lane, M21 7SL
Back due to popular demand: Rob will show you how to fillet a fish, cook a seasonal flat fish Veronique and make goujons with garlic yoghurt dip.

To book places on any of these classes...

• visit our website at http://crackinggoodfood.org/
• email fiona@crackinggoodfood.org
• telephone 0845 652 2572
• pop in to Hickson & Black’s deli on Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton

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.

Soup kitchen

On Thursday 9 December, the second Christmas Farmers' Market was held on Chorlton Green, outside the Horse & Jockey. Cracking Good Food was there to warm up the chilly shoppers with a smashing seasonal soup. We dished up an unusual but ultra-tasty apple and parsnip broth, which went down a treat on the dark, damp evening.

This video clip sees Cracking Good Food's Kath and Adele interviewed by local resident Bernard Leach at the Christmas Farmers' Market about the seasonal soup and the next round of Cracking Good classes, running in the New Year. There's plenty to choose from, so why not get yourself, your friends or your family vouchers to put towards one of the three-hour sessions? Just email fiona@crackinggoodfood.org or call 0845 652 2572.

We also have photos from the Christmas Market on our Facebook page. All you need to do is click here to go straight to the relevant album. Remember to tag yourself if you're in any of the pictures and click "like" if you saw us manning our stall!

Soup kitchen special

This Thursday sees the second Christmas Market on Chorlton Green, organised by the folk at the Horse & Jockey and featuring local farmers and independent producers (more details here).


Cracking Good Food's Adele and Kath will be braving the cold snap at the Farmers Market from 4pm until 9pm to set up a special Cooks On The Hop soup kitchen, dishing up piping hot broth to warm the cockles. This week, they're offering seasonal parsnip and apple soup, and as well as being able to give this unusual but delicious flavour a try, you'll be able to pick up a recipe sheet to recreate it at home.

Also available on the stall will be Cracking Good Food vouchers - the perfect Christmas gift for the food lover in your life! Our vouchers are available at various values and are redeemable as full or part payment against any of the cooking sessions in 2011 (vouchers are valid for one year from date of purchase).

If you can't make it down on Thursday, you can still buy vouchers by...

* emailing fiona@crackinggoodfood.org
* calling 0845 652 2572
* logging onto www.crackinggoodfood.org
* popping into Hickson & Black’s on Barlow Moor Road in Chorlton

Hop to it!

The next round of Cracking Good Food cookery classes gets underway on Saturday 11 September, and the first six weeks' sessions will be run in conjunction with Unicorn Grocery and feature various Unicorn members of staff who are also Cracking Cooks.


To kick things off, Kath (pictured) will be leading a Cooks On The Hop special outside Unicorn between noon and 4pm this Saturday (4 September). Kath will be working wonders with a wok and serving up samples of stir-fry to try. Come along and taste her heady mix of spices and seasonal vegetables, and sign up for some or all of our Cracking Good classes while you're there!

Festival fever!

On Sunday, Chorlton Arts Festival comes to a close with a huge Street Feast from 5pm-7.30pm in Chorlton Precinct. There will be tables in a big long line down the middle and a cracking good community atmosphere is guaranteed! Everyone is encouraged to bring decorations to make their table the best dressed and it would be great to see as many people as possible there donning their best bib and tucker. Cracking Cooks Rob, Kath and Vic will be manning the Cracking Good Food stall, purveying their wares alongside other local food and drink vendors, and performers will be providing entertainment for the troops!


It's a free event, but you need to get tickets in advance - you can pick these up from the Festival Hub in the Precinct (open Wed-Sat 10am-4pm), by calling the ticket hotline on 07794 860305 or by emailing tickets@chorltonartsfestival.com