Our first cookery club of spring term - a little delayed due to the snow and ice!  This leek and potato soup cheered us up as the temperature plummeted outside.

 The leeks and potatoes were peeled and chopped.

They were simmered with milk, stock and herbs to produce the soup.

We enjoyed ours with some freshly baked rolls.

“Wow!”, “Fantastic!” and “I didn’t think I’d like it!” are a few quotes from the children this week.

 This week we made fishcakes.  “Yuk!”,  “Ergh!”, “Oh no!”

The fish, a mixture of cod, salmon and smoked haddock, was gently poached in a little milk whilst lemon and seasoning was added to the mashed potato.  We shaped the fishcakes and dipped them in flour, egg and finally breadcrumbs.

The fishcakes were fried to colour them and then finished off in the oven.

They look proud of them, but will they try them?

 Where did they all go?
They did like them after all!

3/2/2010

This week the children worked in pairs making chocolate chip cookies.

 These are waiting to go into the oven.

The finished result!

10/2/2010

With Shrove Tuesday being next week we honed our pancake tossing skills today in cookery.  We made a simple strawberry ice cream to accompany them and garnished them with sliced strawberries.

Making the pancake batter.

Blending strawberries, lemon juice and icing sugar before stirring in cream and churning in an ice cream machine.

Tossing the pancakes.

No-one seemed to have any trouble demolishing either the pancakes, the ice cream or the strawberries!

HO HO HO

As the festive season is rapidly approaching, cookery club have made mince pies and a chocolate log.

Rolling the pastry.

Team work gets the job done.

The mince pies get the thumbs up!

The children made their own Swiss Rolls.  Eggs and sugar were beaten until the mixture was very thick and then flour and cocoa were gently folded in.

Elbow grease!

A bit of cheating

Filling the roll with buttercream.

Covering the outside.  

The finished log.

This vegetarian chilli was just right for warming us up on a cold and wet November evening.  There was plenty chopping, slicing and dicing to be done as onions, peppers, aubergine, carrots and celery were prepared for the pot.

Go easy on the chilli.

I’m not sure if any chilli actually made it home!

A sweet treat was on the menu this week as we tried our hand at lemon and poppy seed muffins.

Using our maths skills to weigh out the ingredients.

Division again!

No problems dividing 12 by 4!

A Mexican flavour this week as we made (and ate!) tacos.  Onions and peppers were chopped then fried with quorn mince, tomatoes and spices.  Lettuce and cheese was prepared and soured cream was at the ready.

Shredding the lettuce.

Grating the cheese.

Assembling the tacos.

These tacos get the seal of approval.

As this was our last cookery club before half-term we decided to make something a little scary with Halloween approaching: Spider Web Soup !  No spiders were injured in the making of this tasty tomato based soup!

Onions, carrots and tomatoes were chopped and simmered in stock.

The tomato soup was blended and then drizzled with cream.  By drawing a knife through the cream we made a web.

Spiders were cut out of slices of toast.

Lentil burgers were on the menu this week.

 Mixing the stock.

Preparing the vegetables.

Red lentils, peppers, celery, garlic and onions were simmered in vegetable stock.

Once cooked we added herbs and fresh breadcrumbs before shaping the mixture into burgers.

 We enjoyed the lentil burgers in a bread bun with ketchup.

 Take us to the masquerade ball!

In art club the children have been making masks in the Venetian style so that they can wear them for their Halloween parties.

This week we made a spicy Mexican bean soup.

Garlic and red onions being chopped.

The onions and garlic were softened in oil then tomatoes, red kidney beans, stock, chilli and herbs were added.  Then the soup was simmered for 10 minutes.

 We baked some baguettes and tried out the soup.

The children gave this recipe the thumbs up!

 When Chef Lizzie offered some spare salmon fillets to cookery club we were very excited and decided to cook them in a foil parcel.  We served them with oven roasted green beans, garlic and tomatoes, and a fresh parsley sauce.

Chopping the garlic.

Harvesting parsley from the garden area for the parsley sauce.

Our easy method for chopping parsley.

Making the sauce.

Scrumptious!

Our first cookery club of the new academic year.  With blackberries in season, our budding young chefs prepared an apple and blackberry crumble with fresh custard.

Slicing the apples and preparing the crumble topping.

Assembly.

Mixing the custard.

The finished results.  Fabulous!

Some UIV boys have been doing a spot of gardening this term.  They’ve used the raised beds in the wildlife area to grow a selection of vegetables and salad crops, all from seed!

Sunflowers, lavetera, nasturtiums, gladioli, iris and sweet peas were planted into individual pots so that they could be sold or planted out in the garden areas around school.

A kind parent donated some old tyres which have been planted up with runner beans, peas and dahlias.  Supports were made from pruned branches off the willow structure.

The plants were nurtured and finally the boys held their first plant sale.   They have designed their own logo and all of the plants were labelled and came with care instructions.

Now all we need are the customers.

It seems to be going well.

The boys were very pleased at the end of the sale as they made just over £45.00; a £5.00 profit.  Fantastic!  Profits are going back into the gardening club and wildlife area.  There will be another sale after half-term, so if you missed out on the last sale, no need to panic.