Seeds of change
The children were asked to design menu covers featuring seasonal vegetables which were then used to decorate the tables at the Cork Slow Food dinner in the City Hall during the Slow Food Cork Festival 2005.
The response was phenomenal, with more than 1,200 children participating.
Teachers were thrilled to have an opportunity to highlight the importance of seasonal food to their students. The competition also coincided with the Healthy Eating week so it helped to reinforce the message.
The winners, their teachers and parents all came to Café Paradiso recently for the presentation of prizes by Cathal Deevy of Supervalu, sponsors of the competition. They tucked into Sandy Hyland's biscuits, blackberry cordial and home-made vanilla ice cream.
Emily Conway from Sunday's Well Girls NS, Blarney Road, won in the 4-8 age group. Her picture showed a happy little girl carrying two baskets of seasonal fruit surrounded by a border of carrots and apples. Her teacher Marcella O'Sullivan and principal Nori O'Sullivan both came along to celebrate with her. They can't wait until spring to get started on a vegetable garden at the school. They also have plans to re-establish a strawberry patch on Strawberry Hill, where they were always traditionally grown.
The school is committed to raising awareness of the importance of eating healthy food, and have already banned crisps, juices and chewing gum from lunchboxes.
Eight-year-old Suzanne O'Keeffe from St Columba's Girls NS in Douglas was also a winner.
Her teacher Aideen Phipps brought in a huge variety of vegetables and asked her class to categorise them and use them for printing, with spectacular results. This school also has a healthy lunch policy and already has a sensory garden. Plans are now underway to develop an edible school garden.
Lorna McCarthy from Our Lady of Lourdes NS, Ballinlough, won in the 9-12 category as did Craig O'Shea from St Anthony's NS, Ballinlough.
Andrew de Juan from St Peter's Community College in Passage West showed me his winning entry, a lovely colourful drawing of fruit.
It was music to my ears to hear that so many schools are putting an enormous effort into creating an awareness of the importance of eating healthy food and having lots of fun in the process.
This week I've decided to include lots of fun recipes for children to cook for Christmas.
Makes 12, approx
8ozs (225g) chopped dates
½ pint (300ml) tea
4ozs (110g) butter
6ozs (170g) caster sugar
3 free-range eggs
8ozs (225g) self-raising flour
1 tsp bread soda
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp instant coffee, preferably espresso
4ozs (100g) butter
6ozs (170g) dark soft brown, Barbados sugar
4ozs (110g) granulated sugar
10ozs (285g) golden syrup
8 fl ozs (225ml) cream
½ tsp pure vanilla essence
12 x 3inch (7.5cm) 5 fl oz moulds or large muffin tins OR 1x 8 inch (20.5cm) spring form tin with removable base *
Set the oven to 180C/350F/regulo 4. Soak the dates in hot tea for 15 minutes. Brush the muffin tins or cake tin with oil and place oiled greaseproof paper on the base.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then fold in the sifted flour. Add the sieved bread soda, vanilla essence and coffee to the date and tea and stir this into the mixture.
Divide between the ramekins and cook for 30 mins approx or until a skewer comes out clean.
* An 8-inch tin (20.5cm) will take 1-1½ hrs to cook
Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and melt gently on a low heat. Simmer for about 5 minutes, remove from the heat and gradually stir in the cream and the vanilla essence. Put back on the heat and stir for 2 or 3 minutes until the sauce is absolutely smooth.
To serve:
Pour some hot sauce on to a serving plate. Put a warm sticky toffee pudding on a hot plate, pour some more sauce over the top. Repeat with all the others. Put the remainder of the sauce into a bowl, serve with the pudding as well as softly whipped cream.
Makes 12 muffins or up to 36 mini muffins
10oz (275g) plain flour
1 level tbsp baking powder
3oz (75g) caster sugar
½ tsp salt
2 medium eggs
8 fl oz (225ml) milk
4oz (110g) melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Place paper muffin cases in muffin tin. Hand whisk together sugar, eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla. Sieve flour, salt and baking powder. Fold into beaten mixture. It should look like lumpy batter. Add filling of your choice.
Divide mixture between 12 cases or put just over 1 teaspoon per mini muffin case. Fill almost to the top. Bake at the top of the oven for 25-30 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack.
Note: Reduce baking time to 15-20 minutes for mini muffins.
Add four tablespoons of cocoa with 6oz. (150g) mixed chocolate chips (white, milk and plain).
Add 4oz (110g) fresh blueberries, roughly chopped.
Add the desired amount of chocolate chips .
Add 2 cooking apples, peeled and chopped with 1 tsp cinnamon.
Add 2-3oz (50-75g) dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, dates) with ½ teaspoon mixed spice (optional).
We always keep some chilled 'stock syrup' in the fridge, so its simple to make a variety of lemonades. They contain no preservatives so they should be served within a few hours of being made. Many different types of citrus fruit and flavoured syrups may be used.
Makes 2.7 litres (4½ pints)
4 lemons
2 oranges
500ml (16fl oz) approx stock syrup
1.5l (2½pint) approx water
Sprigs of fresh mint or lemon balm
Juice the fruit and mix with the stock syrup, add water to taste. Add ice, garnish with sprigs of fresh mint or lemon balm and serve.
Makes 1.2 litres (2 pints)
5 limes
700ml (1¼pint) water
300ml (½pint) stock syrup
Sprigs of fresh mint or lemon balm
Make and serve as above. Taste and add more water if necessary.
Freshly squeezed juice of 2 lemons
Freshly squeezed juice of 4 ruby grapefruit
450ml (16floz) stock syrup
Water or sparkling water to taste
Juice the fruit, add the syrup and add water or sparkling water to taste. Serve chilled with mint ice cubes.
We had the greatest fun testing this recipe; it was Fionnuala's pride and joy and she was so proud of the result that she wouldn't let us sample it for several weeks. It still tasted delicious then, so it could be made well in advance of Christmas. Children could make it with a little adult supervision.
9ozs (250g) of best quality chocolate
4oz (110g) Rice Krispies
3-4ozs (85-110g) dark chocolate for assembling the tree
3 tsp icing sugar
Christmas cake decorations - Santa, robin, holly etc.
Prepare the trays to make the branches of the tree. Cover 3 baking trays or large Swiss roll tins with tin foil. Draw out crosses on the foil. Leave 2 or 3 inches (5 or 7.5 cm) between each cross. The measurements of the crosses are: 2¾ inches (7 cm), 3½ inches (9 cm), 4¼ inches (11 cm), 5¼ inches (13 cm), 5¾ inches (14 cm), 6 inches (15 cm), 62 inches (16 cm), 6¾ inches (17 cm), 7 inches (18cm).
Prepare a serving plate for the tree: it must be rigid, absolutely flat and strong enough to support the tree. Cover with tin foil. Mark one of the 7 inches (18 cm) crosses on this base.
When all the preparation is done, melt the chocolate very carefully in a very low oven or in a pyrex bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir in the Rice Krispies, mix well. Using a teaspoon, drop small teaspoons of the chocolate mixture along the marked crosses (do the base board first and put in the fridge to set while you do the others, in order of size from the biggest to the smallest).
When all the crosses have set absolutely firmly (30 minutes approx), melt the remaining chocolate over a low heat. Put a teaspoon of melted chocolate onto the centre of the cross on the base board, and stick the next largest cross on top so that the points are in between the points of the previous cross.
While that is setting (supported with a matchbox if necessary), drop another teaspoon of chocolate on top of the second cross to form a basis for the next layer. Refrigerate for a few minutes.
Meanwhile stick the remaining 8 crosses together in pairs in the same way and allow to set. Add another teaspoon of melted chocolate and put the next largest pair of crosses on top, angling them so the branches are arranged alternately. Continue to assemble until the tree is finished, but do it gradually: it is essential that each section is completely set before topping with another layer.
To serve: Decorate the board with Christmas decorations and dust the tree lightly with sieved icing sugar.
Midleton Farmers' Market will be open on Friday December 23 from 9.30am-1pm instead of Saturday Dec 24. The market reopens on Saturday January 14.
Douglas Farmers' Market last market before Christmas is on Friday, December 23, 9am-1.30pm.
Potato by Lyndsay and Patrick Mikanowski;
The Handmade Loaf by Dan Lepard;
Wagamama Cookbook and DVD by Hugo Arnold;
The Delia Collection: Baking by Delia Smith;
Eggs by Michel Roux;
Jamie's Italy by Jamie Oliver;
Best of Irish Festive Cooking by Biddy White Lennon;
Celebrity Chefs Dish of the Day Petsavers;
Serving a City the story of Cork's English Market by Diarmuid O'Drisceoil and Donal O'Drisceoil;
Second Helpings by Paul Flynn;
Kitchen Diary by Nigel Slater A Year in the Kitchen;
Real Flavours The Handbook of Gourmet and Deli Ingredients by Glynn Christian.
Foodalicious Second Helpings, from Marie McGuirk, is €14 including post and packing from An Grianan, Termonfeckin, Co Louth. Cheque or postal order payable to Marie McGuirk.
Classes at An Grianán cookery lifestyle and craft classes. See www.angrianán.ie. Gift vouchers available.
Pig Out Day Courses with Frank Krawczyk. How to use every part of a pig.
Tel 028-28579 or email frankk@oceanfree.net.
When my children were small this superior toasted cheese often saved the day if they were ravenously hungry. It is made from ingredients one would nearly always have to hand.
Serves 2
2 slices of white bread
1 egg, preferably free range
4 ozs (110g) grated Irish cheddar cheese
1-2 tsp English mustard
salt and freshly ground pepper
Butter the bread and place the buttered side down on a baking sheet. Whisk the egg in a bowl with a fork, add the grated cheese and the mustard and season well with salt and freshly ground pepper. Spread this mixture onto the slices of bread and bake in a hot oven 230C/450F/regulo 8 for 15 minutes approx. or until puffy and golden on top.
Note: a teaspoon of chopped chives or a tiny dice of crispy bacon is also delicious added to the above.
