Ready Steady Cook with two of our talented teachers Mr Long and Mr Wilson who prepared a lovely meal within the hour. All the students participated by preparing the ingredients for sweet and sour chicken and perfect passata and by tasting the dishes decided that both teachers were winners in the competition below are the recipes used please try and enjoy.

• Saint Peter’s Perfect Passata (Made by Mr Wilson)
  SPPP is a spicy Italian dish tomato based dish.
  
  The warmth of red-hot chilly peppers are combined with the aromatic taste of garlic and more subtle flavour of basil.
  
  A perfect dish for warming the children, or mamma & papa on a cold winter’s evening.
  Ingredients - Serves 4
  
  One small white onion
  One small red onion
  Medium red or green pepper
  Garlic clove
  
  Red chilly pepper – jar of lazy chilly.
  Jar Red or Green pesto
  Bottle of Passata
  Tube of tomato puree
  
  Extra virgin olive oil
  Pasta - Spaghetti or spirals
  
  Two chicken breasts (organic;)
  
  Preparation
  The vegetables should be chunkily cut – roughly thumb sized pieces of everything – onion, pepper and chicken.
  
  Crush the garlic. Chop up the pepper. Chop up the onion
  
  Cooking
  Cook them in a large pan/frying pan on a low light with a little oil, stirring occasionally. Aim for the onion and pepper to become soft - 10-20 mins.
  
  While they are cooking chop up the chicken.
  
  When the vegetables are ready take them out of the pan. Add more oil and add the chicken – cook well (until all signs of the pink flesh have turned white!)
  
  Reduce the heat to low. Put the vegetables back into the pan. Add most of the bottle of passata. Add a tea spoon of chilly pepper. Add two good tea spoons of pesto. Add a good tea spoon of tomato puree.
  
  Boil a kettle. When boiled pour into another pan – bring to the boil. Add a little oil and then add the pasta. The pasta will take about 10 minutes so you might need to turn off the passata for a little while.
  
  Serve
  Whack it out! Pasta with sauce on top
  Serve with French bread or garlic bread.

Mr Long





Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 2.5cm/1in cubes
1 small red pepper, de-seeded and cut into 2.5cm/1in pieces1 small green pepper, de-seeded and cut into 2.5cm/1in piecesthick
thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, peeled
finely chopped6 garlic cloves
chopped1x220g can water chestnuts, drained and sliced (optional)
1 bunch spring onions, cut into 2.5cm/1in pieces
1 small can sliced pineapple, drained and cut into chunks (optional)
ground white pepper
For the sauce:1 tbsp soft light brown sugar 2 tbsp rice vinegar 3 tbsp rice wine or dry sherry 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
175 ml/6fl oz chicken stock 2 tbsp tomato purée
2 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water

Method1. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the chicken, peppers, ginger and garlic. Fry for 2-3 minutes, then add the water chestnuts, spring onions and pineapple, if using, and fry for about 30 seconds. 2. Add all the sauce ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 6 minutes. Season with white pepper.

Photo of the Cook it club members with their pizza and pasta.













Creating tasty pizza and pasta using vegetables was this weeks challenge. We made the pizza dough using this recipe:
Basic Pizza Dough

Makes one 10in pizza base

8oz/225g strong plain flour
1 sachet easy-blend dried yeast
3 tbsp olive oil (optional)

Place flour in a bowl and stir in olive oil if using, add enough hand-hot water to form soft but not sticky dough. Knead until smooth on a lightly floured surface. Roll out 10in round and place on baking sheet, or make several smaller pizzas. Loosely cover and place in warm place to rise. When it has risen top with tomatoes from tin of chopped tomatoes. Add any other vegetables, pepperoni, ham, cooked chicken etc that you like then top with mozzarella cheese or your choice of cheese. Place in the oven and cook on gas mark 7/425F/220C for about 10 to 15 minutes when cheese has melted and edges are brown.

Students made their own pizza toppings by adding onions, red onions, mushrooms, peppers, kidney beans, mixed beans, celery, carrots, green beans, tomatoes and cheese.

A pasta sauce was prepared using onions, mushrooms, celery, garlic, tomatoes, kidney beans and green beans.
Pasta sauce recipe:
Olive oil
Onions - chopped garlic any peppers
Mushrooms - sliced celery
tin chopped tomatoes
Tomato ketchup or puree
Courgettes/ green beans /Sweetcorn (tinned)/ kidney beans (tinned)/ mixed beans (tinned)

Put a tablespoon olive oil in a saucepan and heat, fry the onions gently until soft and browned.
add peppers, mushrooms, celery and courgettes and fry gently.
Add tin of chopped tomatoes and tablespoon of tomato ketchup or puree cook for 10 mins.
Add sweetcorn, kidney beans or mixed beans and simmer on low heat. While this is cooking prepare pasta as instructions on the packet. Enjoy! serve with garlic bread or crusty bread.


Next week Ready Steady Cook with two teachers.

Using ICT skills the students prepared posters about healthy eating, take a look at their wonderful work:


I am sure you will agree that all the posters are colourful and interesting.
The posters will be laminated so the students can use them as placemats.
Next week we will be looking at vegetables and making pizza and pasta with tomato sauce and lots of healthy vegetables.

Using dried fruit and apples to create great tasting Fruity flapjacks was our aim of the night and all 13 studnets who attended did just that. By using the recipe below they produced unusual and different fruity flapjacks by using: dried tropical fruits including papaya, mango, pineapple also used dates, dried figs, dried apricots, sultanas, cranberries, cherries and cooking apples.


Pieces of the flapjack made with different fruits made and enjoyed by theYear 7 students

FRUITY FLAPJACKS

Ingredients
100g/3¼oz unsalted butter or margarine
100g/3¼oz demerara sugar mixture

100g/3¼oz honey or golden syrup (or both together)

200g/7¼oz porridge oats
25g/1oz dried fruits, coconut, nuts or seeds (or a mixture)

this makes an 8" cake or flan size as picture above, double the mixture for swiss roll size

Method
1. Put the butter, sugar and honey or golden syrup in a saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
2. Add the oats and nuts, fruit, ginger or coconut, if using, and mix well so all the oats and fruit are covered. (If mixture too dry then add more syrup or honey, if its too wet then add more porridge oats.)
3. Transfer the oat mixture to the prepared swiss roll tin (if making double quantity) or 8"flan or cake dish if using quantity above, you can use foil containers if you prefer and spread to about 2cm (¾in) thick. Smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden around the edges, but still slightly soft in the middle.
5. Let cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then score with your desired size of pieces, when cool turn out and enjoy.

All the students enjoyed weighing out the ingredients, melting the mixture and then adding the fruit to the oats and mixing them all together. Placing the mixture in the foil containers and smoothing was a difficult job but as you can see from the picture the results were great. Each student washed up their own equipment, we then discussed usind fresh and dried fruits within the mixture and they all left with their flapjacks and a smile. Reports the next day that family and friends had enjoyed their flapjacks.

Cook It Club began onThursday the 2nd November and was a great success for the 8 students who attended. All students took part in guessing the fruits that were provided and then considered how the fruit looked, smelt and of course how it tastes. Here are some of the unusual fruits that they tasted.

Pomelo, one of the fruits tasted by the 8 Year 7 students in our first Cook It Club night.


Physalis is another fruit which was enjoyed by most of the group, it is also known as a Chinese Gooseberry.



Sharon Fruit which I really enjoyed has a sweet taste with the texture of an apple but tasted like a pear, however others did not like the taste of this fruit.


All the fruits were tried but not all were enjoyed and some students had their favourite fruits. The other fruits tried were :- Pineapple, Kiwi, Papaya, Figs, Mango and Pomegranate.
The students all enjoyed their first session and are looking forward to next week when we make fruity flapjacks.

Exciting News - Cook It Club will begin on Thursday the 2nd November 2006 with enthusiastic Year 7 students.

29th September 2006 - Introduction to a new initative within our school St Peter's Catholic College of Maths and Computing - Cook It Club will begin after half term. Year 7 have recieved information regarding the Club and application forms issued to their Form Tutors. Watch here for further developments.