Chatham Primary School

Kitchen Garden

Kitchen Garden Program Update

Over the past few weeks, our Year 5/6 students have been busy exploring and planting winter crops of carrot, potato, lettuce, beetroot, and spring onion, as well as adding Thai basil to our herb garden. We continue to enjoy an abundance of produce from our existing garden beds that were planted up last September. Luscious crops of rocket, silver beet, spinach, rhubarb, radishes, and an array of herbs have been continuously flourishing, and used for cooking sessions with students across multiple levels of the school.

 

Creating our recipes around our available produce has been extremely rewarding, with students witnessing the ‘farm to plate’ process. Due to the lengthy growth periods of some crops, at times students have also learnt by planting up a crop and immediately cooking with that particular vegetable. A good example of this was when our Year 5/6 students planted up potatoes and then prepared spiced potato Boreks as part of their cooking session. These were a big hit with students and a great example of what exotic tastes can be created using the humble potato. Some students reflected on how potatoes were usually not their preferred vegetable, but when wrapped in filo pastry and special spices – it was a whole different story! For dessert, to showcase our citrus orchard we created our own version of the classic rhubarb muffin recipe, using home grown oranges as a tasty addition. Students at this level are learning how to adapt recipes to suit both seasonal produce and what we have on hand.

 

Now that the weather can be a little chilly in our outdoor cooking precinct, our new indoor kitchen garden classroom is being thoroughly enjoyed. This new space allows us to have access to all necessary equipment, including hot water, a fridge, dishwasher, oven and cook top, all of which ensures a smooth cooking experience for our students. 

 

Next week, the Year 5/6 students will spend time in the garden checking on our crops, weeding and tidying up the garden beds ready for the holiday break. We will also plant our spring onions that we have nurtured from seeds in our Year 5/6 classroom area, which the students have found fascinating. 

 

We really look forward to further growing our Chatham Kitchen Garden Program and cannot wait for our students in Year 1/2 to share in this joy in Term 3. Seeing our students point to the maturing vegetables they planted as seedlings and hearing them say, “we did this!” is so rewarding, as is hearing them say, “I can’t wait to make this at home!” during our cooking experiences. Following this article, please see the recipes for the four delights that our Year 5/6 students have prepared in recent weeks, for you to try at home!

 

Leda Semercioglu

Kitchen Garden Coordinator

Spiced Potato Boreks

Ingredients

 

Filling:

8 potatoes, peeled, boiled until soft then cooled 

1 cup of grated tasty cheese 

½ teaspoon of salt

½ teaspoon of ground coriander

½ teaspoon of ground cumin

1 teaspoon of paprika

½ cup of finely chopped parsley

½ cup of finely chopped spring onion

2 tablespoons of olive oil

 

Borek:

20 sheets of filo pastry (1 box)

2 eggs

1 ½ cups of natural yogurt

¾ of a cup of olive oil

 

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. 
  2. Prepare ingredients based on ingredients list.

Prepare filling:

  1. Using a fork, roughly mash the potatoes.
  2. Add in tasty cheese, salt, paprika, cumin, coriander, parsley, spring onion and olive oil.
  3. Give it a good stir and set aside.

Prepare wet mixture:

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt and olive oil.

Assemble Boreks:

  1. Using a pastry brush, brush the wet mixture on a sheet of filo pastry.
  2. Fold the rectangular filo sheet in half, vertically.
  3. Place about 2 tablespoons of potato filling on the long side of the filo sheet and roll it up. 
  4.  Swirl the rolled filo sheet (giving it a swirl shape).
  5. Gently tighten the ends with your hands to seal.
  6. Place on a baking tray and repeat the process with all filo sheets.
  7. Brush over all rolled Boreks with the left-over wet mixture.
  8. Place in the oven until golden, for approximately 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

 

Fattoush Salad

Ingredients 

1 cos lettuce

4 silverbeet leaves, finely shredded

2 large handfuls of rocket

6 radishes, thinly sliced

1 large handful of parsley, roughly chopped

1 large handful of mint leaves, torn

4 whole spring onions, finely sliced

2 pita bread slices, sliced into 5cm strips

3 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses

2 teaspoons of sumac

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

 

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
  2. Prepare all the ingredients based on the instructions in the ingredients list.
  3. Place the pita strips on the baking tray and bake 3-5 minutes, or until golden brown.
  4. Combine the lettuce, silverbeet, rocket, radishes, parsley, mint and spring onions in a large bowl. 
  5. In a small bowl, whisk together pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, sumac, and olive oil to make the dressing.
  6. Pour dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly.
  7. Break the toasted pita bread into 2cm pieces and scatter over the salad before serving.

Enjoy!

 

Spinach Dip

Ingredients

300 grams of spinach leaves

2 cups of natural yogurt

2 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of dried mint

 

Method

  1. Blanch the spinach leaves until wilted, then drain well and finely chop the spinach leaves.
  2. Sauté the garlic with the oil over medium heat, add the spinach and stir. 
  3. Let the mixture cool for a few minutes.
  4. Mix the natural yogurt with the spinach mixture, sprinkle with dried mint and a little drizzle of olive oil.

Enjoy!

 

Orange and Rhubarb Muffins

 

Ingredients

3 cups of self-raising flour

1 cup of caster sugar

1 cups of chopped rhubarb

Zest of 1 orange

1 cup of diced oranges

1 ½ cups of milk

2 eggs

1 ½ cups of vegetable oil

 

Method

  1. In a bowl, mix rhubarb, orange zest, diced oranges and sugar.
  2. Mix flour into the rhubarb and orange mixture.
  3. Place milk, eggs and oil in a separate bowl and mix well.
  4. Make a well in the dry ingredients, then pour in the wet ingredients.
  5. Lightly mix, but do not over mix.
  6. Settle the paper cases in the muffin tray holes.
  7. Spoon mixture into each paper case, filling them to 2/3 full.
  8. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until firm to touch.

Note: This recipe makes approximately 24 muffins.

     

     Enjoy!