From the kitchen

From Erin & Kristen, Kitchen Garden Specialists

Year 3 has continued to develop skills of working together in the kitchen to learn new techniques and food measurements. Important skills such as reading and following a recipe and understanding the differences between a 'teaspoon' and a 'tablespoon' are just some of the lifelong skills students are learning. Students prepared a delicious fresh herb and olive oil topped focaccia served with a butternut pumpkin and chickpea hummus. Although pumpkin is one vegetable students often state they do not like, once seated with their peers, students thoroughly enjoyed their focaccia fingers dipped into the pumpkin hummus.  

The room was full of ahh's and mmm's.  

Butternut pumpkin is easy to prepare and can be baked whole, halved, or quartered in the oven. A bonus is that the skin is edible and delicious. We love using this vegetable as it provides students with potassium and fibre, helpful for diabetics slowing the digestion of carbs thus keeping blood sugars from rising. It is also a great source of vitamins B, C and beta-carotene all essential for growing bodies. In addition, it has antioxidants to support good health making it a recommended super food by health specialists. 

In week 4 we continued developing our skills of measurement by making a delicious Ethiopian dish - Berbere lentils served with flat bread. Cooking this week involved lots of practice in measuring many spices. The red lentils we used softened to become creamy as they absorbed spices such as cinnamon, fenugreek, coriander, ginger, turmeric, paprika, cardamon, cloves, and allspice. Wonderful warming and flavoursome meal that permeated out of the kitchen and teased students in the playground.

Fantastic reflections are being recorded in students' cooking journals, and we are thrilled to see how Year 3 have been engaging in cooking sessions. We are looking forward to the upcoming weeks and what we will be preparing.