GUEST BLOG: Aroma therapy

By guest blogger SIOBHAN KELLY

A ‘small but perfectly formed’ group of five met on Tuesday (15 May) at Buckthorn House on the Nell Lane Estate to cook fishcakes, feta cheese potato cakes, salsa verde and beetroot and carrot salad.

It was a lovely sociable evening spent chopping and preparing ingredients, chatting about preparation/methods, favourite tastes in foods and preference of vegetables, sharing personal tips for cooking, and just enjoying cooking as part of a group in a relaxed and sociable environment.

Top tips from Kim this eve - to buy the ‘fish pie mix’ at Chorlton’s fishmongers: it's a cheap, good-quality mix of fish ‘off-cuts’ which are perfect for a fish pie or fishcakes. Another great tip we picked up: while the potatoes are boiling in the pan, steam the fish in a colander over them with a lid on top. This reminds me of how great steamers are for saving fuel and for healthy cooking.

I realise each time I take part in a cooking session what a pleasure it is to prepare meals from scratch. It is inspiring as each ingredient is cut and chopped and the aromas spread through the air. The chopped fresh mint wafted under my nose from the other side of the room and other memories of smells this evening are of fresh garlic, chopped red onion, fresh basil, spring onions, freshly squeezed lemon, chopped cucumber, grated deep purple beetroot, grated bright orange carrot, dry fried green pumpkin seeds, mashed potatoes, chopped capers, gherkins and green olives, and gently steamed fish: salmon, cod, coley and monkfish.

The finished feast was really a delight of colours, flavours, smells and tastes. Each dish deserved its place on the plate, and they all complimented one another - you can tell how much I enjoyed eating the finished meal! 

The whole group were very generous with helping and clearing up – a delight to share a meal with. I hope they were all as inspired by this evening as I was.

There are more photographs from this event on our Facebook page.

A good pasting

On 8 May, we ran our latest session with the residents of the Southway Housing Association properties on Nell Lane in Chorlton. This time round at Buckthorn House, we were cooking up Thai green curry with plenty of fruit. Kim demonstrated how to make authentic curry paste and included all participants in the process.  Using food from FareShare, Kim was able to explain how Emerge divert and distribute unwanted short-dated food away from landfill to community groups instead. What a great job they do… and Kim, too, for showing people how to cook it! 

There are plenty more photos from this session on our Facebook page. Click here to be redirected.

GUEST BLOG: Pasta times

By guest blogger TRACEY

A controversial mix of flavours were used this Wednesday (9 May) at the Approved Premises session and some weren't to everyone’s taste!

Anchovies, olives and capers were used to create Puttanesca – a spicy, tangy and somewhat salty Italian pasta dish. Alison assured us that the anchovies, which were already wee, would melt into the sauce (they did), and that the capers would give a balanced saltiness to the dish (which they did), and that the olives were chopped to ‘re-moveable sized’ chunks – which I did! The group familiarised themselves through taste and smell with the ingredients before cooking, resulting in some participants being under keen on trying the end result. Once the cooking started and the aroma of the plum tomatoes, garlic, chilli, and peppers filled the room, however, the reluctance to try abated and eagerness to finish the dish grew.

The sauce simmered to reduce, whilst the group began making a cheese and ham sauce (above) for their second dish. A fairly strong cheese was used and some delicious thinly sliced ham was ribboned. The group were quite content savouring the smell of the fried mushrooms and onions, taking time to note Alison’s tip of frying the mushrooms down to avoid increasing the water content in the cheese sauce. Freshly chopped parsley and the juice of a lemon were added to the Puttanesca sauce then combined with al dente penne pasta. The cheese sauce was combined with the mushroom and onion mix, then added to cooked thick ribboned pasta. The end result was wonderful and enhanced in texture with Alison’s fresh tomato, lettuce, cucumber and grated carrot salad dressed in olive oil and lemon with crunchy sesame and sunflower seeds mixed through. We all sat and ate together to enjoy the fruit of everyone’s labours.


More photos from this session can be viewed on our Facebook page. Click here to be redirected.

GUEST BLOG: Cracking Good Love Food

By guest blogger SIOBHAN KELLY

 

Cracking Good Food took part in the Love Food Festival, which took place at Manchester Museum on Saturday 28 April and was organised by the Sustainable Consumption Institute at Manchester University.

The Love Food Festival says it "aims to encourage people in Manchester to eat more sustainable and fresher food by supporting local growers, learning how to grow your own food and how to cook delicious healthy recipes that won’t break the bank".

We had fun cooking outside, with changing skies and a healthy breeze, and were very lucky as the rain held off all day.

Our cooking session was aimed at 16-19 year olds. Three groups of eight people had the chance to chop and prepare vegetables for a healthy stir-fry meal using mushrooms, spring onions, onions, garlic, fresh ginger, yellow peppers, courgettes, carrots, broccoli, mangetout, beansprouts, fresh lime, soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. It was a delicious, fresh, quick, cheap and healthy meal which each group enjoyed eating together after the preparation and cooking.

We had been given four boxes of vegetables: celery, cucumbers, yellow peppers and broccoli from FareShare, which is an organisation that redistributes short-dated food to community groups and saves it from going to landfill. We used some of the broccoli and peppers in the stir-frys. The rest of the vegetables were given away to passers-by and we encouraged as many people as we could to take what they wanted, resulting in many delighted people. Everyone got a recipe sheet too so they could try/repeat the stir-fry at home.

I was thrilled that all the vegetables were taken away and not put into landfill - how wonderful to see four empty boxes at the end of the session. Maybe there’s a new career for me out there on a market stall somewhere!

See the Cracking Good Food Facebook page for more photographs from the Love Food Festival.

GUEST BLOG: Jalfrezi joy

By guest blogger TRACEY

Wow, Alison was on fire sharing her curry tips at the Approved Premisies session on Wednesday 2 May! The group prepped the veg for the jalfrezi, using spoons to scoop out the butternut squash seeds, chopping the ginger into Julienne strips, and top’n’tailing the fresh green beans for added texture and colour. The room then filled with the delicious aroma of popping dry-fry cumin and onions and both staff and residents were drawn to the kitchen to observe and place orders! Some stayed and watched how the addition of tomatoes, chilli, onions and carefully measured spices created an amazing base sauce for most curries. The pork was cubed and fried in spices and then left to one side. Meanwhile, the cauliflower and sweet potatoes simmered and spinach blanched. Finally, all ingredients came together in the wok where spring onions, chickpeas and green beans were added, which resulted in an appetising and hearty jalfrezi.

The group also created a tarka dhal using washed split red lentils and were introduced to asafoetida (a spice used as a flavour enhancer alongside turmeric). The cumin seeds were popped again and oil was added instead of ghee (the clarified and traditionally used fat) for its health properties. Onion, garlic, ginger, chilli powder, coriander, garam masala and fenugeek were fried, and the softened  lentils added. Just before serving, freshly chopped coriander was sprinkled in. I think the group were pleasantly surprised how substantial and nourishing this meat-free and extremely cheap dish could be.

Group members particularly enjoyed making the ‘naan-in-the-pan’, although the smell of the yeast was not to everyone's taste! But again the group were self-impressed that they had made something so authentic and comparable to what they’d get from a takeaway! The chopping line regrouped to make Alison’s refreshing and tasty salad of tomatoes, cucumber and coriander - the perfect accompaniment to our lunchtime meal fit for a king… and a few other subjects!!

There are more photographs of these tasty dishes on our Facebook page.

Wholesome types

Cracking Cook Kim is back with a new programme of healthy eating sessions for attendees of the Angel Centre in Salford. On Thursday 3 May, she had the group making fishcakes with salsa verde and a poached egg (pictured below), while the previous session had seen them cooking up beetroot stew with butterbeans and rosemary dumplings.

These Cook 4 Life community classes, in conjunction with social enterprise Social adVentures, are all about sharing our tips on how to cook healthy meals that are also flavoursome and inexpensive, and will run for another four weeks. People can be referred by their GP, Social Prescribing Navigator or by self-referral. For more information, contact: simone@socialadventures.org.uk and/or kim@islingtonmill.com.

You can see more photographs from this session on the CGF Facebook page: visit http://www.facebook.com/crackinggoodfood 

Rising stars

Rob was back with his popular breadmaking for beginners class, this time with a new extended four-hour session. Not only did the extra time allow those who needed more kneading time to master the art of breadmaking, it also enabled Rob to extend his repertoire by adding focaccia (above - more photos on our Facebook page) to the menu for the day! And how delicious and masterly was that? In fact, it was so successful, Rob is now running another breadmaking session on 30 June from 10am–2pm, so more people can add them to their menus at home too.

He’s also, due to popular demand (we listen to your feedback!), back with his Discovering Fish course on 23 June, 11am–2pm. Full details on the website: www.crackinggoodfood.org  

We look forward to cooking with you!