Today we have been busy in the kitchen.
Kitchen science and cooking Jamie Oliver style.
After asking N which J O recipe she wanted to cook for tea I was off to Sainsburys this morning to spend a small fortune on the kitchen 'basics' you need for all his recipes. Sadly cupasoup, baked beans and mushy peas don't seem to be in any of them!
We started off with a mould experiment. I chose bread, N chose cornflakes, cucumber and a cocktail sausage, we are going to monitor those to see how much/ what mould they grow and when.
Next was a density experiment - oil, water and golden syrup of course. N dropped a button, satsuma rind, a celery leaf, blu-tack and carrot in to see which items were more dense than others.
Chitting the potatoes (using egg box cardboard borrowed from our neighbours recycling bin - I'm sure they won't mind, I would have asked but they were at work!) for the Potatoes for Schools competition - OK we are late this should have been started on the 1st March!
N cooked the curry for dinner.
and we adapted the raspberry cheesecake recipe to economy strawberries instead! Here is N making J O style chocolate shavings.
This is how they turned out.... yum yum
This evening we watched Jamies Dream School together taped from C4 last night. We both really enjoyed it. Its going to be interesting watching who manages to inspire the kids with which kind of educational approach. At the moment (as much as I respect his legendary knowledge) it doesn't look like Dr David Starkey's 'Old School' approach is much of a hit.
I love your science experiments. I always struggle thinking of something. May I borrow them? =P
ReplyDeleteLove the look of those cheesecakes. I got bought the 30 minute meals book for my birthday, and have avidly been watching the series on tv..he makes it look so easy. My kitchen looks like a bomb has hit it when i try. lol
Looks like N is far better at it than I am.
Hello! Of course you can borrow them, we are going to attempt the sticky tape models, butter and lemon curd you made. Have you seen Jamie Oliver make butter? He gets so excited it makes N laugh. Our kitchen does look like a bomb site, especially as what you see on the photos is the size of my very small kitchen! but the good part is if N is preparing I can wash up as we go along.
ReplyDeleteThe experiments are from a Dorling Kindersley book called Kitchen Science, which I picked up from a charity shop. It is a nice book, with good photos, it might be worth ordering from the library and having a look. It has lots of experiments many using things you already have in the kitchen, some of the scientific reasoning as to why the things happen aren't always in it, but I have cross-referenced with other books in the past. x
Oh thank you so much for that..I'll have a look about and see if I can find it. Looks like a great way spend an afternoon.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes...Jamie Oliver making butter..Hilarious!! I have to admit, I did share some of that enthusiasm when we made ours, when sudenly it went from cream to butter, we couldn't actually believe it was that easy!
We are going to be attempting some proper old jams and pickles at some time as I have a very old victorian kitchen cookbook which I too found in a charity shop, and some of the recipes are very interesting and will probably require some hedberow foraging! We can't wait. :)
I look forward to reading your posts about those. I must look out for books about foraging in the charity shops as I admit I would love to know more about what is safely edible - and free.
ReplyDeleteI've been doing it for some time, and somewhere I have a very reliable boko on the do's and dont's of it. if I can find it, I'll happily let you have it. Generally, the only thing's we steer clear of, unless accompanied by someone wiser is mushrooms.
ReplyDeleteThis whole area is great for things like wild garlic, wild chives, and of course autumn nuts and fruits.
And like you say..it's free! Give it a go!