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

GUEST BLOG: Pizza the action!

By guest blogger RICHARD

Unlike my Great Bakes class, this session (on 19 October) was not in Chorlton High School’s very professional food technology room, but in the Buckthorn House community centre on Nell Lane Estate. Lovely and comfortable with couches to sit in and tables to prepare at, it was a perfect homely yet functional space to work in. And what’s more, I’d been asked to cook pizzas. I love doing pizzas! So after a quick trip to Unicorn Grocery, where I secured all my lovely ingredients - organic, of course, and extremely cheap - we were all set to go. Coordinator Adele still can’t believe I managed to cook about 12 pizzas for under a tenner!


Adele from Cracking Good Food, Sarah from The Lost Plot allotment and Tina from Southway Housing knew the group well, and they were keen to get started! The mix of people attending was brilliant: some adults, some kids and three excellent Chorlton and Loretto High School girls (I do apologise for not remembering your names). I have to add that Britney was an angel. She was only seven but helped with everything and loved all the food that we cooked, including roast marrow, Jerusalem artichokes and peppers from The Lost Plot (Sarah had brought some produce just picked from the veg patch).


So we proceeded with chopping the veg and getting everything prepared. We had peppers, mushrooms, onions, courgettes, tomatoes and cheese. We cooked a tomato sauce from scratch and then got onto making the dough. I showed how to make the dough for the pizza base then everyone had a go at making some. And it worked perfectly! Everyone had some dough to knead, of varying sizes (although I noticed the three girls somehow managed to have the biggest). Eventually the bases were rolled out, the tomato sauce spread on, the veg topping added and finally the cheese sprinkled. Each guest had their own home-made pizza, and all we had to do was cook them, no mean feat with only one oven and about 12 pizzas. Still, we did it and we were all happy. Job done. I think everyone agreed that fresh, home-made pizza was the best, was pretty easy to cook and, using fresh vegetables and herbs, was simply delicious.

You can see more photos from Richard's pizza class on our Facebook page.

GUEST BLOG: Great bakes

By guest blogger RICHARD

I can be quite obsessive when it comes to organising things. Prior to hosting an event such as this CGF cookery course, I have to have it planned (almost) meticulously before I can feel at ease, and if I fall short I tend to worry quite overtly. I am pleased to say that for this occasion everything was tickety-boo. Nothing could go wrong: ingredients had been sourced, the recipe finalised and the schedule completed – I was happy. Natalie was to be my co-ordinator for the class and we had talked much beforehand. For my introduction to vegan moussaka and lentil bake, all I could think was, “Bring it on!”


On the day, Natalie had to pick up the equipment and me then take us to Chorlton High School. We arrived early and made our way to the Food Science Room. Never, in my day, did I experience such a well-equipped and pleasant classroom. There was plenty of space, tables, cookers and equipment for all eight attendees. There was no excuse for a shoddy display. We were soon joined by Caroline, who was a volunteer helper. Once we were all set up, we waited for our guests; and gradually they arrived.

And so it began. I can’t speak for Natalie and Caroline, but I entered in “showman” mode: gregarious and welcoming and a little extrovert. I recognised several faces and we all felt at ease very quickly. I introduced myself briefly before cracking on with the demonstration. I would like to think I was informative and helpful as I slowly guided everyone through the process of veg prep, making white sauces, and building and cooking both a moussaka and a lentil bake. Everyone pitched in and helped produce some lovely food. The group split into two and made their own white sauce, which was accomplished beautifully. The whole event was very informal, the interaction was great and everyone had a good time. Once the bakes were ready, we sat down to taste them and chat about the results.


Finally we were done. Everyone slowly dispersed and we finished cleaning up. All three of us agreed it went well, and seemingly so did our guests.

More photos from the Great Bakes class are on our Facebook page.

GUEST BLOG: Cracking Cooks training session, Wednesday 3 March

By guest blogger CRACKING COOK RICHARD

It didn’t bode well. The venue (St Ninian’s Church) seemed deserted and when I finally got in, I was presented with a large church hall, a semi-circle of seats and a heater. It looked like it was going to be a long, cold and dull four hours for my Cracking Good Food training to be a Cooking Leader.

However, I was pleasantly surprised. First, Adele greeted us, gushing and motivated as usual; then Beth sidled out of the kitchen and re-introduced herself and the aim of the session. Folders were distributed; teas, coffees and juices offered and pleasantries exchanged; and the room wasn’t as cold as expected – I even took my coat off.

And so the session began. It was well structured, concise and divided into bite-sized pieces. We covered the usual suspects: Health & Safety, How To Run A Cookery Class, Housekeeping For Cooking Sessions, Recipe Sheets Debriefing, Equipment Requisition, Costings and Registration. But we also talked within the group. We discussed issues that surfaced, brought up problems that worried us and raised matters that hadn’t even been thought of. A very agreeable session.


The bit that I/we hadn’t expected was a bit of real cooking. Two recipes had been provided and we divided into a Veggie group and a Meat group. We were set the task of following a recipe (my own personal nightmare) in order to produce either a vegetable cobbler or a sausage something-or-other (don’t care; it wasn't veggie!). It was quite interesting seeing a group of chefs, home cooks or wannabe foodies all come together in a kitchen and interact. We didn’t really have time to form a hierarchy or have squabbles, but it was fun and quick and helped everyone bond. So, within half an hour we had two dishes in the oven for our lunch - giving us enough time to fill out a self-assessment questionnaire. Read on.

Cooking time was literally the time taken to fill in the self-assessment form. This would indicate our learning styles. By ticking a series of questions regarding how we approach life and analysing the results, we discovered how we function. No one could believe how perfect I was, but that’s life.

Following this we ate lunch, disseminated the assessment form, talked at length about future courses, discussed how things were likely to pan out and ironed out any potential problems. So all-in-all a very good, interesting and fruitful course.


P.S. Did I mention that for lunch we had to move to a very cold room (coats on), the vegetable cobbler was voted the best (does my memory serve me right? or is this maybe fictitious?) and the topping was baked to perfection, and Cracking Good Food moves on to the next level. Several more members committed to the cause.

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