The Children's Culinary Academy

Wrapping it Up

There's so much to report from the last two weeks (yes, I'm a little late with these posts!). We made a wide variety of amazing foods, including zucchini bread (after we discovered a forgotten zucchini in the garden that was nearly 5 pounds we had to do something with it), blueberry johnnycakes with blueberry syrup, berry quick bread, Mexican tinga (shredded chicken), Bread of the Dead, fruit pizza, roasted red pepper ravioli, ciabatta bread, gnocchi, breakfast burritos, and even some cream puffs and eclairs!

I think the tinga was one of the biggest hits, which surprised me because I honestly thought the sweet, aromatic Bread of the Dead would be the clear winner that day. One day we even made ice cream. That particular class had a lot of energy so they had no trouble jumping and hopping and rolling their way to fresh ice cream in a ziploc bag! They also made a delectable peach kuchen.

The garden is still going strong and we've finally been able to harvest the cantaloupes at their peak of ripeness (as opposed to all the other times we picked one only to find out it wasn't quite ready yet). They're small, but incredibly flavorful.
To add to the excitement, we are suddenly overrun with tomatoes! Big ones, red ones, purple ones, yellow ones, small ones, and teeny tiny ones too! Swiss chard continues to grow tall and strong, and we picked the last of the beets this week. Eggplants are putting on weight, and zucchini and yellow squash are abundant. We're still waiting for the miniature yellow bell peppers to 
turn yellow. They're close, just not quite there yet.

We'll be heading right into the fall program starting September 26th, so don't forget to head over to www.childrensculinary.com to sign up for the regular session as well as the special, 4th Annual Ghoulishious Grub Halloween Class!

Also an important note of thanks to Stephen, Emily, and Sarah for all their volunteer help this summer!! We couldn't have done it as smoothly or as effectively without them. I loved having them around all summer and I know the kids enjoyed being with them too. 

Have a wonderful last week of the summer everyone! Good luck with the start of the new school year, and stay in touch!! 

Nostalgia

Last week I was feeling nostalgic about the kids who have been with me from the beginning of the program. I've had the pleasure of watching them grow for three years. Many have moved from Rake and Bake to Green Teens this year, and they've done so seamlessly. A couple of the teens are becoming teachers and mentors to the younger kids, which is a joy to watch.  Sometimes I'm surprised by what they've retained. The kitchen is a comfort to many of them, and they don't seem to mind doing dishes, putting away equipment, or even cleaning before we leave for the day. I like having them around. They're funny and weird and self-assured in ways that only kids are. Sometimes I think I can see glimpses of their future selves. It's tempting to try to tell them what I see, but I know they won't understand and will look at me like I'm a three-headed squid, so instead I just observe and enjoy.

And because of this sort of sentimentality (sucker!) occasionally get roped into letting them make something crazy like doughnuts and soft pretzels.

Henry P., who has matured so dramatically over the past three summers that it caused me to experience some sort of mental break, was the catalyst. He mentioned how much he loved the soft pretzels we made last summer and asked if we could do them again this summer.  I acquiesced, which only served to empower him to make a more outrageous request. He then said that he wanted to make glazed doughnuts, which are not something we'd ever normally make because they fall a...ahem...tiny bit outside the guidelines for what I think of as a healthy treat.

Nevertheless, he kept asking until one day I finally gave in. BUT! There was a catch. These weren't going to be your average run of the mill deep fried doughnuts (What?! Doughnuts are deep fried?! Most of the kids had absolutely no clue about this and expressed great shock before falling to their knees muttering "but they're sooooooooooooo good!").

I told Henry the doughnuts would have to be baked.

He was thrilled that I'd given in, but I wasn't 100% sure he'd be happy with the final product. I'd never tried baked doughnuts before. At best, it they would taste wonderful. At worst it would all make for an interesting experiment.

I chose an enriched, yeasted dough--the same we used for French Toast earlier in the week, because it was soft and sweet and rose well. We made a big batch of dough and then rolled and cut the doughnuts with the doughnut cutter. The kids were surprised to learn that doughnut holes actually do come from the hole of the doughnut. 

We laid them out on sheet pans, waited for them to rise again, baked them, and then glazed them. They were fantastic!

Some of our other creations last week were barbecued chicken (in the oven) with corn bread (made with agave syrup), and more vegetable samosas, mainly because it just tickles me that the kids will devour something so spicy and foreign to their taste buds.

The garden is in full swing and we've harvested beets, onions, tomatoes, all sorts of herbs, a couple of really hot peppers, and of course lots of zucchini and yellow summer squash. My biggest surprise of the season so far, however, has been the cantaloupes, which are growing like crazy! I planted them but didn't expect much and right now we've got at least a dozen growing out there. Amazing! Hopefully they'll make it to full ripeness. When they do, you can be sure there will be pictures here!!

Evolution

I’ve been doing this cooking with kids thing long enough now that the nuts and bolts of it all come pretty easily, even in a less familiar space. Setup is easy, clean up is getting easier (although nothing will ever make confectioner’s sugar easier to clean), and all the in-between time seems to go more smoothly than ever. Not having to sweat the details gives me the opportunity to spend more time enjoying the kitchen dynamics. Antics, even.

The biggest shift has come from the kids who have been with me for the past three years. Jenna and Ben have now seamlessly taken on more responsibility in the kitchen, watching out for the other, less experienced students.
They’ll help with knife grips, warn them about safety hazards (“keep your eyes on your knife,” “don’t run in the kitchen,” etc.), and they’ll even offer little tips and tricks for how to do things more easily—smashing garlic with the side of the knife, rolling a lemon on their board before juicing , and rolling up basil leaves to make for an easier chiffonade.  They’re even focusing more on technique, working on a clean station, and, of all things, doing the dishes! And that’s just the 5 to 9 year olds.  

The teens have evolved in ways that delight and surprise me every day. They are realizing that they have actually learned the basic techniques (I can write “Biscuit Method” on the board and they know what to do), and they’ve developed a rapport with each other that is both fascinating and charming (in a teenage sort of way).  What used to present a challenge to them is now executed with ease, and most of the time they’re engaged and interested in what I have to say.

So they’re evolving. And so am I. And I’m enjoying and appreciating the process of it.

One of the most fun developments this week was that Emily made us an enormous (4- by 8-foot) chalkboard and we’re loving it! Saving paper and ink is a breeze now. 
No one has to shuffle paper around their station, and when Jenna approached the board to talk her classmates through the recipe she used the visuals I put up there (pictures of measuring spoons and cups) to help clarify the directions.

What did we make this week?  We started with Breakfast Pizza, which is basically a pizza with scrambled eggs as an added topping, Chicken and Pesto Quesadillas with fresh Basil Pesto, 
Power Bars, Berry Mango Slushes, amazing Pink Lemonade (colored with strawberries, not food coloring!), Lemon Bars, and Vegetarian Chili with Cheddar and Chive Biscuits. The teenagers also got to make their own Graham Crackers and Marshmallows from scratch and we catered a small gathering for Stephen’s mom who has just partnered up with some friends to open the Massage Co-Op in Sandwich. Check it out!

"It All Started With a Leaf..."

The past week was pretty great overall--Huevos Rancheros, 

Aloo Paratha
(an Indian bread stuffed with curried potatoes and peas),

Chocolate Orange Bread and homemade Cherry Fizz (the bread was a little weird, but the Cherry Fizz was terrific, especially with a little lime juice added), and Strawberry Shortcake, but the best part of the week, for me, came on Thursday when we made fresh Whole Wheat Herbed Pasta with Tomatoes and Swiss Chard.

I KNOW! Crazy! Most of them LOVED it. But that wasn't even the best part of the day, though it easily could have been.

Every Thursday some of the kids from PAL come over to cook with us. This past Thursday morning Nick and Julia, who'd cooked with me before, came over and left happy. I didn't expect anyone else for the afternoon, so I was a little surprised when just after 1pm I saw two faces peeking around the doorjamb. I asked if they wanted to come in and check out the kitchen. They nodded and stepped boldly into and walked all the way around the kitchen.

Then they left.

A few minutes later they were back and wanted to know if I would let them join that very class. I grabbed a couple of cutting boards and helped them set up their stations. Then I sent them out to the garden to get some herbs and pick some Swiss chard.

They spent the next three hours chopping and kneading and rolling and sauteeing. We put everything together and they headed back to their day camp classroom with the pasta. They enjoyed themselves, that much I knew, but I couldn't have guessed how they would describe their experience to their peers.

Mr. S. came by and told me that I'd be getting more kids next week. The girls were thrilled with their work and upon their return everyone gathered around them, tasting, asking questions, and listening. He heard them say, "It all started with a leaf...."  

And so it did.

Nothing could have made me happier.

Rake and Bake 2010: Week....The First!

I love this summer program! I get five days in a row to work with some really fantastic kids and see their eyes light up when their amazing creations come out of the oven. And this year we’re able to do it in the HUGE kitchen at the Police Athletic League (PAL). Our new home is serving us well. Everyone is happy and comfortable and our garden is getting amazing amounts of sun and regular watering and it shows.
  (The Chive Monster)
 
 
  The week started with Lemon Ricotta Pancakes and Blueberry Syrup, which were an incredible hit, in spite of the fact that there’s, uh…um…cheese in them? The kids were amazed to find that the pancakes didn’t taste cheesy at all. And oh! They whipped egg whites to soft peaks! And they *folded* those egg whites into the batter and got
creative on the griddle, where they learned to use the spatula and successfully flip their way to breakfast-y success. We moved on from there to Filipino-style empanadas that were filled with peas, carrots, onions (oh those onions made everyone cry!), garlic, and ground turkey and seasoned with rice vinegar and soy sauce. I know! Can you believe all that tasty goodness in one package? They couldn’t either, really. Some ate the extra filling while waiting for their pastries to cook, while others held onto theirs so family and friends could have a taste. The dough was part whole wheat and was easy to roll and had a great crumb.
Next was snack day, which was probably everyone’s favorite because it involved chocolate and a frozen treat. Well, the frozen treat was almost frozen—everyone was so hot they didn’t want to wait until their popsicles had time to freeze solid. Slushy was more like it. Actually, one person was able to wait—Madeline. The next day she had a special treat while her friends looked on, green with envy. Thursday we went wild and shucked ear after ear of corn for some spicy corn fritters. The spicy dipping sauce, made with sriracha chile sauce, was well-received, even by those who claimed not to like spicy things. On the side we made a lovely lemongrass-infused coconut jasmine rice that provided a nice balance to the spicy sauce. The lemongrass and scallions came from the garden, and all week we used eggs from my backyard chickens. The girls (Gladys, Wiggles, Chickadee, and Peeps-a-Lot) worked hard to provide us with nearly 3 dozen eggs.
We capped the week off with Peach Cobbler. Everyone was a fan of the crunchy part (the doughy topping) and the cinnamon and nutmeg we used to liven things up. The one thing I would definitely change in that recipe is the amount of sugar we used. At this time of year, with fresh, in-season peaches, it’s not necessary to sweeten them so much. I can’t wait to meet next week’s students! Rake and Bake in the morning and Green Teens (a huge class) in the afternoon. A BIG shout out and thank you to Emily and Stephen for all their amazing volunteer help this week! Class would be a lot more difficult without them there to help and the kids would miss having a chance to bond with some pretty great teenagers.

From the Ground Up

I've been busy these past few weeks getting the garden ready for the summer program! Since I moved the CCA to a new location I had to start the garden anew, and at first the task seemed incredibly daunting. It's hard to leave a garden behind after putting so much work into it--even harder to start again from scratch.

PAL had given me a great space to work with, but, as a former preschool playground, it was covered in nearly equal parts grass, wood chips, and sand, so there was a lot of prep work to be done.

My husband and  a mid-sized rototiller made pretty quick work of the grass. While the grass was being shredded and moved, my son, daughter, and I shoveled an enormous amount of wood chips out to the edges of what would eventually be the garden space.

The sand was a little more difficult. We couldn't decide whether to spread it evenly over the entire garden space or dig it out and move it to an entirely new space. 
When we discovered that the earth beneath the grass, wood chips, and sand was clay, I muttered something about drainage and, for better or worse, we decided to spread the sand around and work it in with the tiller. We'll see how that works out for us as the season wears on.

That effort was nothing by comparison to what had to be done next. An entire dump truck load of soil had to be moved into the garden. The only catch was that the soil was about 100 yards from the garden space. I will admit that I only moved three wheelbarrows full before I gave up and started shaping beds and creating paths out of wood chips. (Hey, that needed doing too!) My devoted and tireless husband is the one who moved all that soil. Every last speck of it. Without his herculean effort I would still be out there willing the soil to 
move itself. 

The planting was the easy part. 

Now we wait...and weed...and create fun kid-style garden art, the likes of which weren't appropriate for our original location. We've started already by creating some adorable garden signs ("Please stay on the paths,"  and "Welcome to the Children's Kitchen Garden"). One of our first garden art projects during cooking camp will be to make garden markers out of wooden spoons, and we've already got some flowers growing out of rubber boots and watering cans!

In short, we're ready and raring to go!

See you all in a couple of weeks!

Asafoeti...wah?!

Asafoetida: A gum derived from the sap of the roots and stem of a giant fennel that stinks to high heaven. Literally translated, it means "stinking resin," but it has also been referred to as "devil's dung" and "stink finger."

Sound like something you want to eat? Probably not so much. The kids in Sunday's class could tell you that it doesn't smell like anything you want to eat either.

Those of you in the know have probably already guessed that we did Indian food last week--more specifically, Vegetable Samosas, which call for asafoetida as one of the many spicy ingredients. 

I brought in my masala dabba
to show the kids how spices are stored in kitchens in India, and we explored cumin seeds, ground cumin, red chili powder, garam masala, amchur (dried mango powder), and the almighty asafoetida.

We started out peeling potatoes and then made a nice, smooth, elastic dough for the pastry, which we set aside to rest while we made and enjoyed some mango and pineapple lassi. 
We've made mango lassi before, and they all loved it, so I thought it would be a good trade for the challenge presented by the number of spices I was about to ask them to use in their samosa fillings.

I'm going to be completely honest here, I truly did not think the kids would even consent to put the asafoetida in their potato/pea mixture, never mind eat it, but each and every one of them complied--happily, 
no less--after I assured them that asafoetida, once cooked, imparts the flavor of garlic and onions.

They folded and filled the samosa dough and cheerfully carried the uncooked samosas to me for pan-frying. And then the true test. Eating them.

I waited for the first review.

"Good," she said.

Then the second.

A full mouth and a thumbs up. And then another thumbs up and another, each one taking a moment to come over to the stove to tell me they liked the samosas. Some even dared to try a little mango chutney too. The only one who seemed at all hesitant was Sarah, who I reminded about the time she was afraid to eat jicama salad and after she finally did, declared it one of the best things she'd ever eaten. Before she left she was happily eating her samosas (although she continues to not be a fan of peas...we have to work on that!).

I'm proud of this class. They all stepped out of their comfort zones and tried new things this session, and I truly couldn't have asked for a more perfect ending to the spring session.

Summer, here we come! Classes for the summer begin on July 12. Registrations are ongoing, though several classes are now full.

It Has Real Corn In It!

The cornbread we made last Sunday had fresh corn kernels in it, and when their parents picked them up the kids excitedly exclaimed, "It has real corn in it!" Of course the cornmeal was made from real corn too, but what thrilled them was the whole topsy turvy (to them) idea of putting whole corn kernels into the batter.

 

What excited me was the agave syrup we used in place of granulated sugar. Agave syrup is a liquid sweetener that comes from the agave plant and is low on the glycemic load scale.  
And, in simple terms, it is also sweeter than sugar, which means you can use less to get the same level of sweetness you'd get in table sugar. Thus, healthier cornbread!!

We also made oven "barbecued" chicken, slathered with our own homemade spicy barbecue sauce. Onions and garlic were chopped,  spices were mixed with tomato sauce, and the whole thing was cooked slowly until the flavors were just right. Then each child brushed two chicken legs with sauce and we put them all in the oven to cook.
  Twenty minutes later the chicken emerged hot from the oven, ready to eat.

 
The kids loved everything on Sunday's menu and the parents sent rave reviews too!

This week we're going to do some Indian food and I can't wait to see what the kids say about one of the more unusual ingredients we'll be using.

In other news, I just agreed to write a monthly column about cooking and gardening with kids at www.camps.com. I'll let you all know when the first article appears.

Apple Dumpling Gangs

Apple season is upon us (and by all accounts, almost gone because of all the rain we had this summer), and I didn't want to foist apple pies on the kids because they can be a challenge with all the dough-rolling and whatnot, so I thought apple dumplings would be fun. 

Both Kids Cafe and Young Epicureans made them, and although both groups struggled with their dough, everyone left the kitchen with a lovely-looking plate of dumplings. And the aromas they left behind were mindblowingly good. People visiting hours later were still commenting about how good the building smelled.

In addition to Apple Dumplings the teens also made Apple Oatmeal Quick Bread

                    

and Hot Apple Cider. We learned a good lesson about what happens when quick bread is overmixed (it comes out pretty darned flat!), and the cider, which was spiked with lemon, orange, and pineapple juices, got rave reviews.

Oh, and I also picked the last of the produce from the kitchen garden--two white eggplants and a nice red tomato. Not a great season, but a satisfying end in a way, because eggplant was the last thing I expected tp be picking!

Mama Mia Calzones!!

Calzones are always a good day in the kitchen, and this past Sunday was no exception.

It all started with the aroma of garlic roasting in the oven, and then two of my big guys hopped up to the stove and roasted some red peppers for the class. The kids love doing peppers because it's the one and only time they get the chance to thoroughly burn something--and of course they have an adoring audience too, which doesn't hurt their young egos!

Andrew is a new addition to the kitchen, and he's got some mad knife skills already at the tender age of eight. All of these kids amaze me with their passion for food and cooking. Most of them watch the Food Network with the same intensity that other kids watch cartoons.  Sometimes while we're cooking they'll pass along the little tips and tricks they've picked up while watching their favorite television chefs. Jenna demonstrated, for example, how to julienne fresh basil (from the garden!) by rolling it up first.

We used that basil as part of the calzone filling, a combination of ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, roasted red pepper, roasted garlic, and egg, and then we got our hands dirty with bread dough, which we stretched and filled and baked until golden brown and steaming hot.

While we waited for the calzones to come out of the oven we made a quick tomato sauce.

I thought this calzone might not be a class favorite because of the addition of roasted red peppers, but once again, the kids surprised me and attacked them with gusto!

 

YUM!

More fun to come this weekend when Young Epicureans gets underway again. Stay tuned!