Delacombe Primary School

SAKG NEWS

We are continuing with our pasta themed menu into week 3 and 4 of our kitchen classes.  This time we have made a semolina and water dough called "Capunti", using ridged gnocchi boards to hand roll spirals.  The semolina gives the pasta a firmer taste than egg dough and it clings beautifully to the sauce, making it ideal for creamy pasta sauces.  We made a creamy sauce using dill and leeks from the garden, as well as some mushrooms, chicken and garlic for flavour.  The pasta and sauce were mixed together and garnished with herbs and parmesan - this indeed was a delicious dish. 

Our side dishes consisted of Crunchy Caesar Salad using celery and bean sprouts with home- made croutons and dressing, along with Rye and Carraway Seed Grissini. To finish off we made Eton Mess which we served with ice-cream.  

 

Basic Pasta Dough.pdf
Basic Semolina Pasta-Capunti.pdf

 

Creamy Pasta of the Imagination

Ingredients:

  • 200g chicken breast or thigh fillet chopped into bite size pieces
  • ¼ tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper
  • Hand full of fresh dill – finely chopped (just the fronds, not the stalks)
  • 1 leek peeled apart, well washed, and finely chopped
  • Handful of chives – finely chopped
  • 30g butter chopped into cubes
  • 100g or 1 ¾ cups mushrooms finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste (start with ¼ tsp each and add if necessary)
  • 1 garlic clove or 1 tbs minced garlic
  • ¼ verjuice or white wine vinegar (you can use white wine here if you have it)
  • ¾ cup thickened cream (or dairy free alternative)
  • Enough cooked pasta to serve everyone, we served 400g of pasta with this quantity of sauce. – (ask a grown up to help with this bit as boiling water is dangerous)

Method:

 

Step 1- Toss the chicken in the garlic and onion powder with some salt and pepper

Melt half of the butter in a pan on high heat, and the leek and the mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook for 1 ½ minutes, then add the rest of the butter and the chicken, garlic, and the dill and cook for 3 or so minutes, stirring constantly until the chicken is well cooked.   

 

Step 2- Transfer everything to a plate and pour the verjuice into the pan with high heat, it will bubble and boil which is good.  This is called deglazing.  After 2 minutes turn the heat down to medium and add the cream.  When it starts to simmer add the remaining salt and pepper and the parmesan, stir it in then let it simmer for a couple of minutes. The sauce should thicken. 

 

Step 3- Add the chicken mixture back in, and then add your cooked pasta with a little bit of its water to the sauce.  Toss it lightly until all the pasta is coated and there is no water pooling in the pan.  If your sauce is too thick add a little more pasta water. 

Serve straight away with a garnish of chives and more parmesan (adjust to your taste) and ENJOY!

 

Hint: you can swap the herbs for what you have available, you can also add bacon. Whatever you decide to use as your ingredients the basic creamy sauce recipe is the same.  You could use snow peas, chopped up greens, you can even just have basic creamy sauce with pesto.  It is up to you, experiment and see what you like! 

Eton Mess a la Delacombe Primary School

  • 2 punnets of strawberries
  • 2 tbs icing sugar
  • 2 tbs orange juice
  • 250 g raspberries (frozen or fresh)
  • Whipped cream or ice cream depending on your preference
  • 60g meringues (either make these or use shop ones)
  • Chopped up pieces of cake or muffin – this is a good way to use up slightly stale cake, but fresh is yum too

Method:

Step 1 – Make the syrup.  Cut up half the strawberries and put in a small saucepan with half of the raspberries, icing sugar and orange juice.  Bring to a simmer and then cook for 4 minutes with the lid on, then another 4 minutes with the lid off.  It should look like jam.  If you want it to be smoother mash it in a blender or with a fork.  Let it cool down. 

 

Step 2 – mix the cooled syrup with the rest of the berries (you can swap and change the fruit here, use what you have and what you like, kiwi, peaches, blueberries and even bananas would all work well) We added some chopped up mint, but if you don’t have any don’t worry.  We also added some passionfruit (frozen is fine).

 

Step 3 – layer the fruit mixture in a bowl or glass, making a layer of fruit, then cake, then more fruit, then meringues, and top with ice cream or cream.  It is sort of like a deconstructed pavlova and you can even add jelly if you want to but be careful not to let it go soupy. 

 

 

In the Garden each grade 4 & 5 class has participated in a Potato Growing COMPETITION! They have been learning about how to grow potatoes and then planting their own pot to look after until next winter when they will be harvested. The winning class will be the one that grows the most potatoes by weight! 

 

Students have been also harvesting a lot of produce from the garden. Snow peas, lettuces, leeks and herbs for this menu and cabbages for the next menu. It's a busy time in the garden, students are working hard to prepare beds for planting by taking out old crops, adding compost and loosening the soil ready for new ones. Our tomatoes were transplanted into bigger pots that will go into the garden soon. Two beds of carrots have been directly sewn into the garden as they were popular last season! And of course, there have been so many little visitors to the garden at lunch time to water the garden and pat a guinea pigs. 

 

Thanks kids!

 

Mrs O’Brien, Kate & Jodie