Cookery With Children

[Guest]

Since moving in SEptember we have had no proper cooker

We have managed with cold cooking and cheating Blue Peter stylee involving getting up mega early to make 40 jam tarts!

 

Does anyone have any recipes to share for the microwave?

 

PLUS we really wanted to do pancakes and I wondered if anybody had done them in a m/wave and if it works?

[Guest]

hi

 

just found this link - it may take you to some recipes but not very confident its what your after!

 

love twinkle

[Guest]

http://www.teaching-resource.co.uk/forkids/cookery.htm

 

 

would help if i posted link!

[Inge]

we made soup using a microwave, cutting veg up small and cooking it with stock in small batches mixing them together , interesting as all children brought the veg and we had no idea what the result would be...worked and many parents asked for the reciepe!! If only!!

 

 

I dont think I would try to cook pancakes in a Microwave but you can reheat them so a Blue Peter style would work here

 

Have made cakes or sponge puds in the microwave too but cannot find the resciepe for cooking times at the moment.

 

 

Inge

[Guest]

I know its not cooking put you can buy ready made pancakes. I bought some last year and the children decided which toping they wanted.

[Marion]

Again not really cooking but every class Ive had love to make popcorn in the microwave and watch the bags expand

[Guest]

Thanks all of you.

 

I wondered about soup - what did you cook it in and how long did it take?

 

We do popcorn later as part of the 5 senses work. We use the micro as seems safer somehow! We show them some unpopped so they SEE and FEEL the difference, they LISTEN to it pop, SMELL it as it cooks and then of course TASTE it!

 

What do other people do about cooking?

[catma]

cos our cooker was tiny and was in the staffroom anyway I looked at it as food science rather than cooking - blenders are useful for making e.g. smoothies, houmus, sandwiches are excellent to make, make jelly, of course the butter (see recipes) , mash up things eg avocados to make guacamole, noodles in hot water, melt chocolate to coat fruits, fruit salads, veg salads, fridge cakes, the biscuit crumbs and melted stuff kind, icing biscuits and decorating with stuff, e.g. licorish strands and silver balls to make sunshine biscuits, marshmallow on top of a digestive, icing over it and decorate around brim to make easter bonnet...................... no cooker required for most of these or microwave used to melt stuff. (I had inherited a nursery class where cooking was always cakes and wanted to make it more innovative, and reflect the cultures of the children where possible.) Hope these ideas help!

Edited February 19, 2006 by catma

[Inge]

When we did the soup the ingredients were dictated by the parents...we put up a notice asking for every child to bring in a suitable vegetable on a set day, they then prepared the vegetables. Last time was a very eclectic mix, the usual carrots and potatoes etc. plus butternut squash, sweet potato, an ear of sweetcorn, a tin of tomatoes!!! courgette, leek celery celeriac plus a few more i cannot remember. A lot of investigation of vegetables, where they come from etc, before raw tasting , smell, feel etc before sorting and preparing.

 

All we did was put it into bowls with contents cut quite small, most of the children managed this very well, we also had a grater for some of the veg ,

The bowls contained items of a similar density and cooking time, a small amount of liquid was put in each one and covered (we used a plate) and they were cooked for a few minutes a time, testing at intervals until cooked. All were put into a large bowl, and veg stock added to make a soup......You can liquidise it if you wish too for another dimension.

 

Children can either taste at pre-school, but we asked parents for a container to take some home and most were very happy to do this. we had a few empty takeaway cartons fro those who forgot, or even disposable cups and plastic bags.

 

it tastes different every time and always tastes good.....staff try to save some for thier lunch!!!

 

Inge

[Inge]

Just thought, we also do snakes in mud or dinosaur swamp or whatever you want to call it.

 

Bit like a knickerbocker Glory with a twist.

 

Children make up Jelly the day before.

Then they mix angel delights or similar desserts (we often do this as an experiment, split into groups and see which method is the fastest to make it up, fork, hand whisk, electric whisk, surprisingly the fork often is faster!!!)

The children then layer this in a clear plastic cup with the jelly, boudoiur biscuits or other cake, rainbow drops or rice crispies, coconut , or whatever you think will go in, they then each have a snake sweet or dinosaur sweet to put on top. They enjoy making the choices and watching the layers grow in the cup. we cover them and they take them home to eat.

 

Parents often say they enjoy this one!!! we often wonder who eats it???

 

i know not very healthy but then it is not done every week, once a year on average, most of the time we try to be more on the side of foods we can eat more of rather than those we can eat sometimes, (which is how we approach it rather than good and bad foods, we feel foods are only bad when eaten too often or in large quantities)

 

Inge

[Guest]

Food Science... I like that title.

We do all that you said and call it cold cooking

But I prefer that term. Our kids love the simple pleasures of buttering toast and cutting it - how many people have time to let their children do it at home? We feel a bit fraudulent calling it cooking but to call it Food Science oh yes I like!!!

 

Thank you for your imput everybody. Will certainly give the soup a go - they already do make fruit salad - same idea - they chop it and choose what goes in their bowl and we add a bit of fresh juice - so far have used carton but squeezing would be excellent...

 

They help make the dough each week but I'd love to make real bread with them...

[Marion]

Dont know if anyone has suggested porridge but you can make that in the microwave also chocolate crispy cakes

[Guest]

Hi

Our kids love making raspberry yogurt, very easy todo and great for discussing colour changes. Natural yogurt mixed with raspberries and some icing sugar.