Sunday 23 February 2014

Hi Blog Readers!
This is the second of the new Food Tech blogs. Thank you for reading it.
Don't forget to read through and find the code to crack, and the clue to to deciphering it. The first correct deciphered code will win the code cracker an Easter Egg!
Did you know that 7 out of 10 Moms cook more than one meal at a time to please their family?
I must confess that I used to! My two children ate well but my daughter Samantha was quite a fussy eater and so I catered for her taste, and her brother Tim ate the same because he ate almost anything!
He loved his Grandma's roast dinners with all the different vegetables. When he started school and was 'interviewed' by the health visitor, she asked him what his favourite food was, he replied' 'pureed parsnip'!
I'm sure she thought I had told him to say that but I hadn't! I suppose most kids of that age would say, 'MacDonalds'!
Samantha went to Oxford University, and on the first night - a formal meal in the Great Hall with all the important professors etc., she was seated next to the Dean of Christ Church College. The main course was salmon; she had always refused fish before this but of course couldn't refuse it in front of the Dean!  She started to eat it , and guess what? She liked it!  She orders fish many times now in restaurants.
So the lesson here for you is to try new stuff - you might surprise yourself!
I was a terribly fussy eater as a child and teenager and yet studied Home Economics when I left school!?
I only ate one vegetable willingly and that was peas! I detested sprouts but now even like them cold!
The big turning point came when I was 24; I started eating all kinds of veg. and also discovered that I liked cheese!
Write me a short piece about what happens in your house - does your Mom cook different meals for your family members? Do you think this practice is a good idea or not, and why. A chocolate bar for every piece of written work.
I often give talks to local clubs and societies on Food related topics.One popular talk that I enjoyed writing, and that can be changed regularly if I get bored with it, is entitled The A-Z of Food Trivia. For each letter of the alphabet I have a word beginning with that letter that has a connection to food or drink, and there is a some information or a story to interest and often amuse the audience.
The clue for the code later on is -REVERSE THE ALPHABET.
I change the words to my talk occasionally, and often get new ideas from books or articles on food that I have at home.
My current word for C is Cornish Pasties. These snacks have attained their identity over the past 200 years.
An industry that really supported the community in Cornwall was tin mining. It was harsh, dangerous work, and the miners spent all day down the dark, dusty mines. Their wives or mothers would bake pasties and throw them down the mine shaft to their family members for their lunch! Pasties consisted of meat and vegetables baked in a thick pastry crust. Sometimes the cook would place a dividing piece of pastry through the middle of the pasty and there would be the savoury filling on one side and a pudding on the other!
The thick pastry acted as a lunchbox and insulator; the contents were kept safe and warm. They would be full of carbohydrates to provide energy for the miners. The cook usually made one for each member of the family and put the person's initials on it, so there would be no fighting over who got what!
Miners were very superstitious.One superstition was that it was unlucky to eat the thick crust along the top of the pasty so it had to be thrown to the spirits of the mine.
So the thick crimped edge of the pasty was just the handle to hold it by; then it was thrown.
This practice, although based on superstition, probably saved lives.  Miners' hands were often covered in ARSENIC-a poisonous substance found in the rock along with the tin, and would have transferred to the pasty 'handle'. Enough pasty handles, consumed over time, would probably have caused death!
Isn't history interesting?
DSZG DZH GRN'H UZELFIRGV EVTVGZYOV DSVM SV DZH ORGGOV?

Mrs P signing off now. Have a go at the code.   Also, enter the spelling test!

Sunday 2 February 2014

Re launch of Food Tech Blog


 Hi Everyone!
Welcome to the re-launch of the Food Tech Blog with its new name CHATATTOUILLE!
I decided to re-name it, as there are quite a few blog addresses for BON-APPETWEET which it was called before.
My daughter, who came to this school suggested Chatatouille because, with bon-appetweet it's not really a Twitter type thing - much longer than that - and i am chatting to you in my blog, so that was a better idea.!
Trying to copy the correct spelling from Ratatouille woulg ive CHATATOUILLE, but, unfortunately there is already a blog address with that spelling. So, with apologies to our French teachers here at QM, it will have to have 3 T's!
At the moment, the peppers icon on the school page is only set up for bon-appetweet so clicking on it will not access the blog. Instead, just type www.chatattouille.co.uk into google and it should turn up!  Then, look to the right of the 2013 blog and click on the archive list - 2014.
The last blog I wrote was some time back in 2013; I was so busy that I didn't have enough time to work on it, but kept meaning to.
So now, I'm back on the case, and I am teaming up with the English Department who are going to select some Year 7 boys to write stuff for me each time. It will give them chance to hone their English grammar skills, and develop skills in writing under the genre of a blog. I look forward to working with them and having a bit of help with all this. So, hopefully, the next blog will have chat in it from Year 7's.
At the bottom of the page is a quiz about Chinese Cookery.
The Chinese New Year started on 31st January and will be celebrated up until February 10th.
Many people will celebrate on 10th Feb. with an 'Emperor's Banquet which I think can consist of up to 20 courses!! Imagine trying to do the PE Departments beep test the next day!!!
There will be quite a few TV Food Programmes I expect, where typical recipes are demonstrated.
I like watching and reading books/articles by Ken Hom, and Ching-He Huang.
I was fortunate enough to go on a Chinese Cookery course some years back and picked up a lot of authentic recipes, and learnt a lot about the culture and history that accompany many of the recipes.

Mythology of the Chinese New Year

According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian    Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again. The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk. The Nian became Hongjun Laozu's mount.

Preceding days

On the the day before start of New Year often cook a special porridge, given to all family.
On the days immediately before the New Year celebration, Chinese families give their home a thorough cleaning. There is a Cantonese saying "Wash away the dirt on ninyabaat" but the practice is not restricted to nin'ya'baat (年廿八, the 28th day of month 12). It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the first day so that the newly arrived good luck cannot be swept away. Some people give their homes, doors and window-frames a new coat of red paint; decorators and paper-hangers do a year-end rush of business prior to Chinese New Year.[12] Homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese auspicious phrases and couplets. Purchasing new clothing, shoes, and receiving a hair-cut also symbolize a fresh start. Businesses are expected to pay off all the debts outstanding for the year before the new year eve, extending to debts of gratitude. Thus it is a common practice to send gifts and rice to close business associates, and extended family members.
The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the Reunion Dinner. A dish consisting of fish will appear on the tables of Chinese families. It is for display for the New Year's Eve dinner. This meal is comparable to Christmas dinner in the West. In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings (jiaozi, 餃子, jiǎozi) after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese tael. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake (niangao, 年糕, niángāo) and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means "new year cake" with a homophonous meaning of "increasingly prosperous year in year out".[13] 



The biggest event of any Chinese New Year's Eve is the Reunion Dinner. A dish consisting of fish will appear on the tables of Chinese families. It is for display for the New Year's Eve dinner. This meal is comparable to Christmas dinner in the West. In northern China, it is customary to make dumplings after dinner to eat around midnight. Dumplings symbolize wealth because their shape resembles a Chinese tael. By contrast, in the South, it is customary to make a glutinous new year cake and send pieces of it as gifts to relatives and friends in the coming days of the new year. Niángāo [Pinyin] literally means "new year cake" with a homophonous meaning of "increasingly prosperous year in year out".


Traditionally, Red envelopes or red packets lìshì) are passed out during the Chinese New Year's celebrations, from married couples or the elderly to unmarried juniors. It is also common for adults or young couples to give red packets to children.
Red packets are also known as 歲錢/压岁钱 (yàsuìqián, which was evolved from 壓祟錢/压祟钱, literally, the money used to suppress or put down the evil spirit) during this period.[24]
Red packets almost always contain money, usually varying from a couple of dollars to several hundred. Per custom, the amount of money in the red packets should be of even numbers, as odd numbers are associated with cash given during funerals The number 8 is considered lucky (for its homophone for "wealth"), and $8 is commonly found in the red envelopes in the US. The number six  is also very lucky as it sounds like 'smooth'  in the sense of having a smooth year. Sometimes chocolate coins are found in the red packets.
Odd and even numbers are determined by the first digit, rather than the last. Thirty and fifty, for example, are odd numbers, and are thus appropriate as funeral cash gifts. However, it is common and quite acceptable to have cash gifts in a red packet using a single bank note – with ten or fifty yuan bills used frequently.



Fifteenth day

The fifteenth day of the new year is celebrated as Yuanxiao Festival/Shangyuan Festival/ or the Lantern Festival (otherwise known as Chap Goh Mei  literally "the fifteen night" in Fujian dialect). Rice dumplings  a sweet glutinous rice ball brewed in a soup, are eaten this day. Candles are lit outside houses as a way to guide wayward spirits home. This day is celebrated as the Lantern Festival, and families walk the street carrying lighted lanterns.
In Malaysia and Singapore, this day is celebrated by individuals seeking for a love partner, a different version of Valentine's Day.[22] Normally, single women would write their contact number on mandarin oranges and throw it in a river or a lake while single men would collect them and eat the oranges. The taste is an indication of their possible love: sweet represents a good fate while sour represents a bad fate.
This day often marks the end of the Chinese New Year festivities.

Well, that's all for now. I have loads to do before tomorrow - Italian and Spanish homework, the Tesco order for Food Tech, practise my clarinet (a new project for 2014), a report for Mr Hughes and some TV to watch.
I hope you've enjoyed reading the blog. More next week.
BELOW is the Chinese quiz. The first 3 correct sets of answers to be handed in by the end of the week will result in those pupils getting a chocolate prize.


1.    There are 12 animals on the Chinese Calendar. Name 3.
..................................        ...............................................        ...........................................

2.     Which of the 12 animals heads the list?  Which is last?
.................................................       ...............................................

3.     This year it is the Year of the ...........................?

4.     What is Oolong?  ..........................................

5.     Name 3 sauces (in bottles) that are often used to flavour Chinese recipes/foods ........................................
                 .....................................................    ...................................................

6.     Name any 2 traditional Chinese desserts.   .................................      ................................

7.     What are Dim Sum?.......................................................................................

8.      Other than Stir-frying - which uses a small amount of oil - what other 2 cooking methods are often used?
          .........................................................     .................................................
9.      Name any 3 fresh ingredients that are usually used for flavouring a recipe.  ......................................
         .............................................       ...........................................

10.    Why wouldn't you used olive oil for frying?   ...........................................................................

11.     Name the cutting/slicing tool that is often used by chefs, other than a knife...................................

12.    How does a Chinese chef know that the oil is ready for frying?.....................................................

13.     Name 3 of the spices in Chinese 5 spice powder..............................    .................................
                               ..........................................

14.     What is the utensil usually used for cooking the food in?  ...................................

15.     What isn't very pleasant about the vegetable Durian? ......................................................................