Posts Tagged With: school

Kitchen News – 6th December 2012

Posted on January 10, 2013 by melhm

(OK this is a bit late but I’ve finally managed to find time to get this all updated! Watch this space…)


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Sunny and hot, cold and windy, humid and foggy, sunny and windy, cold and rainy, warm and rainy, sunny and windy… What’s going on? Goodness, just as I think I can pack the heaters away and start chilling cucumber soup, the wind & rain get me reaching for the long sleeves & slow-braised lamb again… One thing’s for sure though: the broad bean season has definitely come to an end! I counted to about 25 kilos but then I reckon we plucked another 25kg after that… and even today I finished blanching & freezing another box-worth, so will be able to surprise and delight (!) some eager-beavers in the first few weeks back in 2013…

So to business: Weeks 9 and 10 of Term 4 traditionally only mean One Thing: the Festive Menu! We’re mixing it up though in the interest of sustainability and using up what we’ve got before the big break… so we’re balancing mini Christmas cakes and festive shortbread with rainbow silverbeet and spring onion calzone, and the return of our fabulous Nicoise salad as it’s just SO good with our spanking-fresh eggs, and those green dwarf beans just keep on comin’… the children have also been hard at work signing their thankyou cards and then completing them in our kitchen classes, and Ligia has been helping our groups create beautiful mandala-inspired patterns on them with some clever kitchen garden materials…

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This will be my last Kitchen News of 2012… So with that I would like to thank all the Bondi children for being so enthusiastic and inspiring, for being so helpful and happy, for saying hello in the playground and telling me that they made one of our dishes at home, for trying new foods and for being brave. I’m very sad to be saying goodbye to the beautiful Year 6s (and some year 4s too) who have been such a joy to work with this year, but in reality the circle of life continues and I’ll be a proud mum waving my big girl off at the school gates for the first time in the New Year…

Our heartfelt thanks too to our great community of KG volunteers who help these kids achieve so much every lesson – and that’s not just the delicious food: I see first-hand the changes in self-esteem, self-control, technical ability & fine motor skills, the ability to work as a team (and even vegetable identification and preparation!) – and then stay and sweep the floor too! And a big group-hug to all the amazing staff and teachers at Bondi who help me do this great job and keep me smiling day after day…

Thank you for a great year. Love, Melissa x

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Bruschetta with broad bean and parmesan mash

Posted on October 30, 2012 by melhm

Broad beans are our veggie equivalent of blood oranges… Super-seasonal and only available at this time of year, so we just have to jump at the chance! We just love them and eat as many of them, and in as many ways as possible, in springtime!

ourkitchengarden.net

Fresh from the garden:broad beans, rocket, garlic, lemon thyme
Recipe source: Melissa, kitchen specialist at Bondi PS

Equipment:

  • Saucepan& lid
  • Bowls – big, med, small
  • Microplane zester & citrus juicer
  • Chopping board& bread knife
  • Measures – tablespoon
  • Scales
  • Grill trays
  • Colander
  • Mortar & pestle
  • Butter knife
  • Serving plates
 Ingredients:

  • 1kg broad beans
  • Great sourdough bread (like Iggy’s)
  • 50g parmesan
  • 3 tablespoons E-V olive oil
  • A lemon
  • Cooking salt
  • Flaked salt & black pepper
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 5 sprigs thyme

What to do:

  • Fill the saucepan with water & set to boil with the lid on. Heat the grill.
  • Slice the bread thickly and place on grill trays, ready for grilling.
  • Pod the broad beans into the medium bowl and put the outer shells into the compost.
  • Zest the lemon and then cut it in half and juice one half only.
  • Wash and dry the thyme and pick from stems, and finely chop.
  • Grate the cheese into the small bowl.
  • When the water is boiling, drop all the broad beans in with a teaspoon of cooking salt. Put the lid back on to bring back to the boil quickly, and boil for 2 minutes. Fill the big bowl with cold water.
  • After 2 minutes, drain the broad beans into the colander & then immediately refresh in the bowl of cold water. Drain again & wipe the big bowl dry.
  • Double-pod the broad beans into the big bowl, discarding the outer skin into the compost.
  • Pound the broad beans with the pestle in the mortar with the olive oil & a pinch of salt (you may have to do this in 2 batches) until smooth – a few beanie lumps are fine!
  • Into the broad bean mixture stir the lemon zest and juice bit by bit, tasting as you go – and then the grated pecorino and herbs with a grind of pepper. Taste again for seasoning.
  • Slide the bread into the oven to grill & lightly toast, turning when needed & watching to make sure it doesn’t burn.
  • When ready bring toast out from the grill. Cut the end off the garlic cloves and rub each cut-side down on the toast a few times.
  • Spread a little broad bean paste onto each slice of toast (cut in half if large) & arrange onto serving plates with a good grind of pepper.

Notes: What does ‘double-pod’ mean? Why do we do this to the broad beans? What other name are broad beans known by?

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Asparagus, feta and sweet potato frittate

Posted on October 15, 2012 by melhm

You can also use pumpkin in this recipe instead of sweet potato: either works well. You can also cook one big frittata in a frying pan over heat and then finish it under the grill, but we pour ours into muffin pans to oven-bake… and add some of our lovely Bondi herbs for an aromatic twist.

ourkitchengarden.net

Fresh from the garden: eggs, asparagus, sweet potato, marjoram, thyme
Recipe source: Melissa
Makes: 12 large or 24 mini fritatte

Equipment:

  • Pastry brush
  • 12-hole cupcake tin
  • Chopping board & knives
  • Potato peelers, scissors
  • Salad spinner
  • Large frying pan
  • Grater, scales
  • Wooden spoon
  • Bowls – large, med, small
  • Tongs, whisk
  • Serving plates
 Ingredients:

  • Half a large sweet potato
  • Half a bunch of asparagus spears
  • Small handful marjoram and thyme sprigs
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Flaked salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 100g feta cheese
  • 10g parmesan
  • 6 large eggs

What to do:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C.
  • With the pastry brush, paint a little olive oil into each hole of the cupcake tins to grease.
  • Peel the sweet potato and carefully chop into 1cm cubes.
  • Trim the woody ends from the asparagus and then chop or snip into 1cm pieces.
  • Wash the herbs and spin them dry. Strip the leaves from the stalks & reserve.
  • Heat the frying pan with the oil and toss in the sweet potato. Season well with salt and pepper. Cook, turning occasionally, for about 4 minutes over medium heat until the cubes are just tender and lightly golden at the sides.
  • Meanwhile, cut the feta into small cubes and grate the parmesan.
  • Stir the asparagus into the sweet potato and cook for 2 minutes until just tender.
  • Then add the cubed feta and gently stir to mix in.
  • In the large bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the herbs, parmesan, a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper.
  • Divide the sweet potato mixture evenly into the cupcake holes, spoon the egg mixture over and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until cooked.

Notes: Why is the name of this recipe frittate, ending in e? What other vegetables could you use in the recipe? What animals’ milk makes feta?

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A last minute school holiday idea – 2 places left!

Posted on September 27, 2012 by melhm

We’ve got two places left for our school holiday program next week! One spot each day on Tuesday 2nd October and Wednesday 3rd October next week – jump to it if you haven’t arranged anything yet!

What could be better for your child than a day spent in the kitchen garden, learning all about spring vegetables, throwing dough, teamwork, cooking, eating, planting and chook care?!

Get in quick before somebody else does! Call me today on 0414 978 957

ourkitchengarden.net

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Spring School Holiday Programs for 4 years and up!

Posted on August 11, 2012 by melhm

Do you have a kid as-keen-as-a-bean in the garden and kitchen? Send them to us in the holidays to participate in a ‘Day in the Life’ of a Kitchen Garden School Program! We are offering a full-day program for 7 to 12 year-olds and also now a half-day mini-program for 4 to 6 year-olds!

Check out the School Holiday page on this site for more info… and take a look at my recent posts on this site with photos of the wonderful kids on our last school holiday program where we harvested, chooked, chopped, stirred, set and ate over the course of a full day… We’ve just announced some new dates so lock in a reservation for your Year 2 to Year 6 mini-Heston or Costa Georgiadis straight away!

And due to  overwhelming demand, I will be offering a half-day session on Friday for the little ones – so if you have a keen 4, 5 or 6 year-old wee wannabe cook who would like to feed the chooks, help me in the garden, and then cook up a storm for  morning tea and lunch – book them in ASAP!

Message me below if you have any questions!

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Kitchen news – 19th July 2012

Posted on August 10, 2012 by melhm

Welcome back everybody! And what a beautiful few days we’ve had, with lovely encouraging sunshine streaming onto our soggy lawns & a sniff of spring in the air even though we’re only halfway through winter!

Our Kitchen Garden

This week has been all about cleaning for me – with a small amount of excitement in blowing the fusebox in not only the cottage but also District Office next door (!) – but the main event of the week was a visit from the lovely Colin Holt from Hudson Meats who showed 5/6P how to make delicious, organic and preservative-free sausages from scratch. He brought along some chicken thighs and lamb shoulder and we minced them with our lovely Bondi herbs and rocket – and then we got to throw them on the BBQ & gobble them for lunch with Iggy’s rolls and our own luxury potato salad, a simple herby leaf salad, homemade tomato ketchup and balsamic onion jam… a BBQ fit for a governor general! Big thanks to Penny, Eliane and Steve for volunteering for this special event – and cranking up the hotplate!

All recipes due to be up here soon – check them out, like if you do, and subscribe!

And yep it’s that begging time again: please show your support for our crucial program in committing to some sessions of volunteering – ideally you will be able to help out for a term but we understand that time is short so we’ll take anything we can get! Spread the word out there if you can… thanks and happy munching!

PS – At the end of last term we held a kitchen class for some of the ladies & gents that wouldn’t ordinarily get to see what goes on in the cottage in term time… so I put Mr Jones, Mrs Morris, Mrs Kelly, Paul, Ligia and some of the DET district office chaps to work in their own sections… They did a great job & we had some delicious results – and here is the evidence!

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Linguine with cavolo nero and herb sauce

Posted on August 10, 2012 by melhm

LINGUINE WITH CAVOLO NERO AND HERB SAUCE

Fresh from the garden: cavolo nero, coriander, thyme, marjoram, oregano

Recipe source: Melissa ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This is a delicious accompaniment to our freshly-rolled pasta! We use the prehistoric-looking cavolo nero (also known as Tuscan kale) but you can also use silverbeet or spinach just as well…

Equipment:

  • Large stockpot with draining insert
  • Chopping board
  • Large & small knife
  • Salad spinner
  • Wooden spoon
  • 2 large bowls
  • Scales
  • Medium saucepan
  • Tongs
  • Serving bowls
 Ingredients:

  • 500g linguine
  • 225g unsalted butter
  • 8 garlic cloves
  • A large handful of cavolo nero leaves
  • A small bunch of coriander
  • 4 sprigs of thyme
  • 4 sprigs marjoram
  • 4 sprigs oregano
  • Small bunch parsley
  • Flaked salt & black pepper

What to do:

  • Fill the large stockpot with water and heat on high.
  • Wash the cavolo nero leaves and shake dry. Strip off the leaves, discarding the stems, and cut into ribbons 1cm wide.
  • Wash & spin dry the herbs, then pick the leaves if needed, discarding the woody stems.
  • Finely chop the herbs.
  • Finely chop the garlic.
  • Chop up the butter into cubes and melt the in the saucepan over a medium heat.
  • Stir in the garlic and cook gently for a couple of minutes.
  • Stir in the herbs.
  • When the water in the large stockpot is boiling add the pasta & cooking salt, stir, put the lid back on and when boiling again cook for 2 or 3 minutes until ‘al dente’.
  • Drain the pasta and transfer to back into the stockpot.
  • Add the butter mixture to the stockpot and toss carefully.
  • Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve into bowls.

Notes: What does al dente mean? Why do we pick the leaves from the herbs? What does cavolo nero actually mean?

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Basic linguine recipe

Posted on August 10, 2012 by melhm

BASIC LINGUINE RECIPE

Fresh from the garden: eggs

Recipe source: adapted from a recipe by Stephanie Alexander in ‘Kitchen Garden Cooking With Kids’

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Our Kitchen Garden students love making pasta! This recipe is just for the dough mixture and you can add whatever sauce you want…

Equipment:

  • Pasta machine
  • Scales
  • Measures – teaspoon, ½ teaspoon
  • Food processor
  • Plastic film
  • Large knife
  • Pastry brush
 Ingredients:For the dough:

  • 500g ‘00’ plain flour
  • 5 free-range eggs
  • Cooking salt

What to do:

  • Weigh the flour, then combine it with 1½ teaspoons of salt in the bowl of the food processor. With the motor running, add the eggs. Process for a few minutes until the dough clings together and feels quite springy.
  • Tip the dough onto a clean, dry workbench. Knead the dough for a few minutes, then wrap it in plastic film and let it rest for at least 1 hour at room temperature.

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  • Get an adult to help fix the pasta machine to a suitable bench. Screw the clamp very tightly.
  • Set up your pasta hanging poles, ideally between 2 chairs.
  • Clear a large space on the workbench alongside the pasta machine. All surfaces must be clean and dry. Press the dough into a rectangle about 8 cm wide.
  • Set the rollers on the pasta machine to the widest setting and pass the dough through. The dough will probably look quite ragged at this stage. Fold it in 3, turn it 90 degrees and roll it through again. Go to the next-thickest setting and pass the dough through 3-4 times.
  • Continue in this manner (changing the settings and passing the dough through) until the dough has passed through the second thinnest setting. Don’t use the very thinnest setting, as the dough gets too fine and is hard to manage. If the dough gets too long to handle comfortably, cut it into 2-3 pieces using the large knife, and roll each piece separately.
  • Fix the cutter attachment to the machine and carefully roll the pasta strips into the larger strips for linguine, gently catching them as the come through.
  • Drape the linguine over the hanging poles to dry while you make your sauce.
  • Clean the pasta machine by brushing it down with a dry pastry brush and clear and clean the table.

Notes: Never wash the pasta machine – it will rust! Just brush down with a strong brush to remove the leftover dough.

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Kitchen Garden program for littlies?

Posted on June 19, 2012 by melhm

Whilst on the campaign trail for these school holidays, I’ve had more than a few requests for the 5 to 8 years age group… so I’m thinking now that I might start planning a couple of half-day sessions for the holidays after next – so between Terms 3 & 4… what do you think?

We would definitely focus on a more tactile, hands-on affair, with lots of kneading and rolling and tearing and smelling rather than chopping and boiling!

Our Kitchen Garden

I think it would make a lovely little morning! Hunting for chook eggs, looking for slugs, squishing up herbs, doing a bit of craft – focussing on the seasons, hand-rolling bigoli pasta…

Let me know if you’re interested & I’ll pop you on the mailing list!

Categories: Kitchen Garden, School Holiday Program | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

School Holiday Program 2012

Posted on May 23, 2012 by melhm

How exciting! We’ve just announced our inaugural School Holiday Program for 2012… Head on over to the School Holiday Program page to see the deets but I can also say we’ll be cooking (and digging!) up a storm!

These are some of the fab activites we’ll be doing:

Rolling hand-made pasta and throwing pizza dough for lunch –

Earning your own Our Kitchen Garden knife licence as we chop, slice and dice the organic herbs and veggies we’ve harvested from the garden –

Meeting and feeding the chooks –

Planting seeds for a take home ‘watch & grow’ project so bring your own plastic bottle destined for recycling or landfill –

Creating your own seasonal, local and organic morning tea and lunch while learning some amazing life skills in the kitchen and garden –

And of course, having fun!

LIMITED SPACES ONLY!

DOWNLOAD Our Kitchen Garden booking form HERE!

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