Darina Allen: Confronting less-than-appetising school meals with some proper nourishment

Chef Angela Hartnett served replicas of poor-quality school food beside higher quality nutritionally rich counterparts

Darina shares three recipes and the story of a fake 'pop-up' restaurant designed to highlight the poor standards of food in UK schools

I'm not sure if you’ve heard about Angela Hartnett.

She is a feisty, super talented, UK Michelin chef with several restaurants in London.

Recently she teamed up with The Food Foundation, The School Food Project, and Bite Back, the young food activists to launch Centena (a riff on Canteen) — a fake ‘pop up’ restaurant stunt, deliberately designed to expose poor school food standards in the UK.

It was created to have maximum impact, so Angela invited a star studded list of guests, mostly chefs, food writers, and high-profile figures like Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall, Prue Leith, and Ballymaloe Cookery School alumna, Thomasina Miers.

They arrived in all their ‘finery’ thinking they were attending the launch of Angela’s newest dining venture. After cocktails, the guests sat down to lunch but instead of Angela’s usual fine dining food, the guests were served authentic replicas of school food, copied plate by plate from real school canteens. A processed chicken burger in a stale bun, soggy chips and lukewarm baked beans, what a shock!

For the second course, the guests were offered a delicious burger, a high standard nutrient dense alternative from a recipe developed by Chefs in Schools — a tasty curry with fluffy rice and flatbread and raita. The contact highlighted what is possible under updated school food standards and was designed to force adults to confront the reality of the quality of the food their children are being served at every lunchtime.

The School Food Project is backed by a coalition of concerned folks including The Food Foundation, Chefs in School, the young school activists Bite Back, School Food Matters, and Jamie Oliver.

They provide the schools with specially developed recipes, kitchen team training, menu planning and support through online hub The Food Foundation — check it out at foodfoundation.org.uk.

At a time when many Irish parents, teachers, and school children have deep concerns about the quality of the school food they are served and the waste of the food and packaging, it’s worth checking out.

Florrie’s Easy Peasy Chicken Curry

recipe by:Darina Allen

Try to source chemical-free ingredients to enhance children’s health and brain power.

Servings

4

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp oil

• 1 large onion sliced

• 1 tsp ginger grated

• 2 cloves of garlic crushed

• 1 tsp turmeric powder

• 1 tsp ground coriander seeds

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 500g chicken fillet – cut into short finger-like pieces salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 1 red pepper cut into strips or cubes

• 1 yellow pepper cut into strips or cubes

• 250g sweet potato, peeled and cubed

• 1 x 400g tin coconut milk

• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

• 125g frozen peas

• coriander leaves, freshly chopped

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onions, ginger, garlic and fresh spices and cook for two minutes.

2. Add the chicken strips, season with salt and pepper, cook for five minutes.

3. Add the pepper and sweet potato and cook for two minutes more.

4. Add the coconut milk and tomatoes. Bring to the boil and simmer for a further five minutes.

5. Add the peas and cook with the lid off for 4 minutes.

6. Taste and correct seasoning.

7. Serve with freshly cooked rice, fresh coriander leaves and naan bread.

Basic Beef Burgers

recipe by:Darina Allen

The secret of really good burgers is the quality of the mince. It does not need to be an expensive cut of meat, but it is essential to use the beef on the day it is minced.

Servings

4

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 10g butter

• 75g onion, chopped

• 450g freshly minced beef – fatty flank, chump or shin would be perfect

• ½ tsp fresh thyme leaves

• ½ tsp parsley, finely chopped

• 1 small organic egg, beaten

• salt and freshly ground pepper

• pork caul fat, optional (available from your local butcher’s shop)

• olive oil

• burger buns and toppings of your choice

Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

2. Toss in the chopped onions and sweat them until soft but not coloured. Leave the onions to cool.

3. Meanwhile, mix the minced beef with the herbs and beaten egg, season with salt and freshly ground pepper,

4. Add the onions and mix well.

5. Fry off a tiny bit on the pan to check the seasoning and correct it if necessary. Then shape the mixture into burgers, 4-6 depending on the size you require. Wrap each one loosely in caul fat, if using, which will baste the meat and melt away in the cooking.

6. Cook to your taste on a medium-hot pan or grill pan in a little oil, turning once.

7. Split the burger bun. Add lettuce, slices of tomato, cheese, crispy bacon, garlic mayonnaise as you fancy and enjoy.

Easy Burger Buns

recipe by:Darina Allen

There is nothing worse than a burger ruined by stale processed buns, here's my recipe to make your own from scratch.

Servings

8

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 2 x 7g sachet of fast action yeast

• 2 tsp sugar

• 300ml hand hot water

• 450g white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

• 1 level tsp salt

• 50g butter, plus extra for greasing

• 1 egg, beaten with a pinch of salt

• sesame, sunflower, pumpkin and poppy seeds, for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat the oven 220°C/Gas Mark 7.

2. Put the yeast, sugar and 3 tablespoons of water in a bowl. Stir to dissolve the yeast. Leave to stand for 5 minutes or until frothy.

3. Stir together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the yeast liquid. Add the rest of the water and mix to soft dough.

4. Add a teaspoon of extra water if the dough is dry. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth - this will take about 10 minutes.

5. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Allow to rise in a warm area of your kitchen until doubled in size. Knock back the dough and remove from the bowl onto the countertop.

6. Divide into 8 pieces. Shape the dough into balls and place on an oiled baking sheet. Leave to rise for 20-30 minutes or until doubled in size.

7. Brush the dough with the beaten egg, sprinkle with seeds and bake at 220°C/Gas Mark 7 for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 200°C/Gas Mark 6 for 10-20 minutes depending on the size. Lift off the tray and put on a cooling rack to cool.

Apple Crumble

recipe by:Darina Allen

Crumbles are a favourite comfort food, vary the fruit according to the season.

Servings

6

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 700g Bramley Seedling cooking apples

• 40-50g sugar

• 1-2 tbsp water

• Crumble

• 110g white flour, preferably unbleached

• 50g cold butter

• 50g caster sugar

• 25g chopped almonds or hazelnuts (optional)

• ½ tsp cinnamon (optional)

• 1.2 litre capacity pie dish

Method

1. Peel the apples, cut into quarters, remove the core and cut into large cubes.

2. Turn into a pie dish. Sprinkle with sugar. Add the water.

3. Rub the butter into the flour just until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs, add the sugar and cinnamon and chopped nuts if using. Sprinkle this mixture over the apple in the pie dish.

4. Bake in a preheated moderate oven 180°C/Gas Mark 4, for 30-45 minutes or until the topping is cooked and golden.

5. Serve with whipped cream and soft brown sugar.

Seasonal Journal

Local Chestnuts Skibbereen Farmers Market

Paul McCormick and Jacinta French have a woodland farm 5km upriver from Skibbereen.

They have been growing a huge variety of fruit and nut trees for 30 years and have a small herd of Droimeann cattle, an Irish heritage breed, to assist in their work farming for nature.

Paul and Jacinta have a stall at the Skibbereen Farmers’ Market on Saturdays from 9am – 1pm for the Autumn season, selling:

• 7 varieties of Sweet Chestnuts for roasting, boiling or indeed for planting and growing on, into next year’s trees.
• Varieties of Sweet Chestnuts: Bouche de Betizac, Bournette, Marlhac, Rouse de Nay, Marigoule, Verdale, Maraval.
• Japanese Walnuts, Heartnuts, Butternuts.
• Sweet Chestnut sapling trees.
• Heartnut sapling trees.

Upcoming Slow Food Event

A date for your diaries, don’t miss “Introduction to Biodynamic Agriculture” with Joe Prendergast, a Slow Food event at the Ballymaloe Cookery School on Wednesday December 2.

Joe will explain that it is the oldest form of organic agriculture, why and when it started and if it works.

• To book, ring Ballymaloe Cookery School on 021 4646785

Wild Salmon driven to the verge of extinction…

For the many of us who are deeply concerned about the wild salmon situation, you may want to look out for an exceptionally important book – Swimming Up Stream - One Man’s Fight to Save the Atlantic Wild Salmon written by Patsy Peril with Deirdre Nuttall published by O’Brien Press. A brilliant scholarly work which tells the whole tragic story from Ardnacrusha to today but hopefully there’s hope.