Hi Everyone
So sorry for the delay in posting this blog; it's been weeks since the last one and I have been so busy that I just couldn't allocate any time to it.
If anyone out there wants to help me with this blogging - maybe even write one for me- just call into Food Tech and volunteer. Prizes and house points available!
Well, it's half term week and I am going to work on this blog and publish it tonight.
The quiz at the end of this blog has a closing date of June 13th and the prize is a chance to come to Food Tech one lunchtime and cook something with Mrs P. Hopefully that prize will encourage you to have a go at the quiz.
I subscribe to a Food magazine every month and this month's edition had quite a few interesting food facts amongst its pages. Here are a few:
* In June 1958 brothers Dan and Frank Carey opened the world's first - guess what? Pizza Hut!
They had read about a teenage 'pizza fad' and so borrowed $600 from their Mom to start the business in Wichita, Kansas. Spot prize here ... What is the link betwee this place and a famous country and Western singer? Chocolate bar if you bring me the answer.
* In 1840, Queen Victoria was given a weird wedding present - a 550kg wheel of Somerset cheddar.
After being put on display it was, according to rumour, fed to pigs, as the royal family never got round to eating it! Another spot prize ... what happened to one of the contestants at last year's famous cheese rolling festival in Gloucestershire?
* Helen Howard, a snail farmer says that snails like best to feed on cabbage, apples, cheries and plums!
You know they are ready to sell for food when the edge of their shell turns up like 'the rim of a hat'!
Spot prize - who introduced snail - eating to Britain 2,000 years ago?
* It's become fashionable of late to cook with pink salt from the Himalayas or black lava salt from Hawaii.
Salt is essential to life and its preservative properties mean that, in the past, man has been able to store food for the lean winter months. Spot prize ... Where exactly is Halen Mon sea salt produced?
I have nearly finished teaching all of the year 8's - they come for a full day's Food Tech once a year and so we try to make the most of every minute of that day. Year 8's have, over the past few years produced some very unusual variations on the standard recipes they are asked to cook.
One pair put 20 fluid ounces of oil into their chocolate brownie mix instead of 8! The brownies were bubbling away like Mount Vesuvius for 2 hours before Mrs P finally discovered what they had done wrong! Needless to say the brownies were binned and they made a successful batch the next day!
Another pair managed to cook a knife inside the brownies - it was only discovered when they tipped the block of brownies out of the tin!
This term another pair produced a very thin block of brownies that were chewy and oily and very inedible.
We are still not sure what was omitted from the mixture; one of the pair couldn't remember adding the 4 eggs whilst the other wasn't sure if they had added any flour!!!!
The same boy couldn't find his shepherd's pies at the end of the day. We looked everywhere for the 2 foil containers with their tasty cheesy mash topped lamb ragu inside, but to no avail. Later though, Mrs P found them in the oven where they had been cooking for ages! The resultant bricks could have been used as door stops!
Have you ever tried to cook something which ended up as a disaster? Let me know!
Ok, so here's the quiz with the prize of a lunchtime's cooking session....
12 answers - which countries do these foods/dishes originate from?
1. gazpacho
2. poutine
3. ackee and saltfish
4. wiener schnitzel
5. marzipan
6. osso bucco
7. bobotie
8. colcannon
9. bortsh
10. pho
11. fajitas
12. ankimo
Bring your answers to me by the end of Monday 13th June. JEP
Wednesday 1 June 2016
Friday 19 February 2016
Hi everyone
I know it's nearly the end of the half term break but I did intend to post an extra blog with a quiz for you to attempt over the break and submit before the end of February to win an Easter Egg if you are the first or second boy to come to me with the correct answers.
It is a quiz about the Chinese New Year and Chinese food in general, and it appears below.
Whilst I'm writing, I just want to tell you that I will try to alter the layout of the blog text before the next edition so it doesn't look so long and boring.
I'm new to blog writing really and get a bit carried away as I write, and, on looking it on the web page it is definitely in need of improvement.
So, thanks to Miss Slater, our English teacher, for pointing this out to me - I will try harder next time!
Here goes with the quiz.....
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 any 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 use olive oil for frying? ...........................................................................
11. Name the cutting/slicing tool that is often used by chefs, other than a knife...................................
12. What metal is a wok traditionally made from? ..................................................
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? ......................................................................
signing off now ----hope someone attempts the quiiz!!
I know it's nearly the end of the half term break but I did intend to post an extra blog with a quiz for you to attempt over the break and submit before the end of February to win an Easter Egg if you are the first or second boy to come to me with the correct answers.
It is a quiz about the Chinese New Year and Chinese food in general, and it appears below.
Whilst I'm writing, I just want to tell you that I will try to alter the layout of the blog text before the next edition so it doesn't look so long and boring.
I'm new to blog writing really and get a bit carried away as I write, and, on looking it on the web page it is definitely in need of improvement.
So, thanks to Miss Slater, our English teacher, for pointing this out to me - I will try harder next time!
Here goes with the quiz.....
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 any 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 use olive oil for frying? ...........................................................................
11. Name the cutting/slicing tool that is often used by chefs, other than a knife...................................
12. What metal is a wok traditionally made from? ..................................................
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? ......................................................................
signing off now ----hope someone attempts the quiiz!!
Monday 8 February 2016
Hi Everyone
This is the second of the 2016 blogs. I hope that you enjoyed reading the first one; I was surprised though that nonone entered the simple quiz to win a chocolate bar. Maybe I will have to up the value of the prize in order to get you to have a go this time?
I have been asking the sixth form cookery students about their 'last supper'. I spoke about this last time on the blog: what 3 course meal you would enjoy if it was your last night on earth? Where would you have the meal, and what 2 celebrities would you invite alongside your family and friends?
First off - Sandhev Bath .... his call to fame in Food Tech lessons is that he preferred to eat raw cake mix , rather than waiting until it was cooked into a full size chocolate cake. Also, he wanted to cook Pigeon Pie one week, stating that he had watched a video on the Internet and now was proficient in preparing such a delicacy from scratch! I'm not sure if I can order live pigeons from Tesco Online but if only I could....
Well, Sandhev's Last Supper is Grandma's Dhal with Parothas, followed by Chicken Nuggets, Smiley Faces, sweetcorn and peas, and for dessert - Cookie Ice cream. All to be eaten - and I quote him- 'atop the Grand Canyon'. His guests would be Enrico Inglesia and Frankie Boyle????!!!!
Next up is Dan Russon ....Classic Tomato Soup, Mee Goreng (chicken), and Eton Mess. Must have a chocolate milkshake too. He would partake of this fine repast on a beach in Borneo, and would invite the founders of 2 of the world's major religions, in order to hear them discuss their own.
I had another brilliant 'quote' from a year 7 in his end of session test this week.
I always instruct the boys on the art of successful washing up (without a Mom or dishwasher to help) - they need to rely on 3 kinds of energy: heat (hot water), chemical (detergent), and physical - themselves (plus a sponge or scourer.)
This particular boy listed the 3 in his test....Hot water, washing up liquid, and ....wait for it....HUMAN POWER!! I found this highly amusing. I have visions of THE HULK arriving every Wednesday to help our possibly weak year 7 to cope with the supreme effort that must feel is required to clean his wok!!!
My Wall of Fame/Shame is to be updated this week. Photos are now going up: 2 boys from year 8 who managed to accidentally cook a knife inside their chocolate brownie tray bake, and 2 boys who incorrectly added a full pint of cooking oil (20 fluid ounces) intstead of 7 fluid ounces to their chocolate brownie mixture.
I couldn't understand why the brownies refused to set in the oven, they bubbled away relentlessly like Mount Vesuvious for over an hour without solidification. I only worked out the error when I finally quizzed them about what they had put in the mixing bowl!! My much used response of 'bin it' was the final answer to yet another culinary disaster, with the pair having to return the following day to 'get it right this time' and have an acceptable product to take home to family!
The third photo is of Robert Elkinton (6.2) would be Jamie Oliver who flipped a pancake too enthusiastically - it ended up on the floor rather than back in the pan. I assured him that the floor was cleaned thoroughly every night by an excellent school cleaner, and I think he might have eaten it?!
This week I am going to include something of what Daniel Brittle wrote about Christmas at the TOAST Literacy Club wich he attends.
Daniel first woke up at 2.30 am and found things in his Christmas stocking, so promptly ate some of the packet of skittles that were inside. He finally went back to sleep and woke again at 8.30 when he and his sisters opened everything in their stockings. Then they woke up their parents and went downstairs.
He writes..'Finally! we get to open all our other presents. Dad insisted though that he had a cup of tea first, so we had to wait more minutes..
The first present I opened was a book about Minecraft. then there was more interesting stuff like more books and science sets and then I opened the best present of them all - a quad copter.Then I continued opening selection box after selection box until I found the worst present of them all - a spy microphone.
It would have been fine - something I could hide and listen to the family through, secretly. Unfortunately, it was much too big to hide anywhere without it being seen!!
And the best meal I had all holiday was Toad in the Hole on New Year's Day!
Today, 8th February sees the start of the Chinese New Year. The celebrations started on Sunday evening (New Year's Eve) and, I believe, last for 15 days. A chocolate bar to the first 5 boys who come to find me
and wish me Happy New Year in Mandarin Chinese, and tell me which animal it is being celebrated this Year. The characteristics of those born under this zodiac sign are:
And finally, don't forget that February 9th is
Pancake Day, also called Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras (which is French for "Fat Tuesday"), is the last day of feasting before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It's called so due to the tradition of eating pancakes on the day. This tradition comes from a time where any rich foods were eaten on the day before Lent, and fasting begins. The date can vary from as early as February 3rd to as late as March 9th.
Families used up ingredients like eggs, milk and flour to make pancakes which probably wouldn't be used during Lent. The recipe for the batter is the same as that for Yorkshire Puddings; the batter is supposed to perform best if made with some ice cold water, and apparantly, in times past, they were made with snow!
This is the second of the 2016 blogs. I hope that you enjoyed reading the first one; I was surprised though that nonone entered the simple quiz to win a chocolate bar. Maybe I will have to up the value of the prize in order to get you to have a go this time?
I have been asking the sixth form cookery students about their 'last supper'. I spoke about this last time on the blog: what 3 course meal you would enjoy if it was your last night on earth? Where would you have the meal, and what 2 celebrities would you invite alongside your family and friends?
First off - Sandhev Bath .... his call to fame in Food Tech lessons is that he preferred to eat raw cake mix , rather than waiting until it was cooked into a full size chocolate cake. Also, he wanted to cook Pigeon Pie one week, stating that he had watched a video on the Internet and now was proficient in preparing such a delicacy from scratch! I'm not sure if I can order live pigeons from Tesco Online but if only I could....
Well, Sandhev's Last Supper is Grandma's Dhal with Parothas, followed by Chicken Nuggets, Smiley Faces, sweetcorn and peas, and for dessert - Cookie Ice cream. All to be eaten - and I quote him- 'atop the Grand Canyon'. His guests would be Enrico Inglesia and Frankie Boyle????!!!!
Next up is Dan Russon ....Classic Tomato Soup, Mee Goreng (chicken), and Eton Mess. Must have a chocolate milkshake too. He would partake of this fine repast on a beach in Borneo, and would invite the founders of 2 of the world's major religions, in order to hear them discuss their own.
I had another brilliant 'quote' from a year 7 in his end of session test this week.
I always instruct the boys on the art of successful washing up (without a Mom or dishwasher to help) - they need to rely on 3 kinds of energy: heat (hot water), chemical (detergent), and physical - themselves (plus a sponge or scourer.)
This particular boy listed the 3 in his test....Hot water, washing up liquid, and ....wait for it....HUMAN POWER!! I found this highly amusing. I have visions of THE HULK arriving every Wednesday to help our possibly weak year 7 to cope with the supreme effort that must feel is required to clean his wok!!!
My Wall of Fame/Shame is to be updated this week. Photos are now going up: 2 boys from year 8 who managed to accidentally cook a knife inside their chocolate brownie tray bake, and 2 boys who incorrectly added a full pint of cooking oil (20 fluid ounces) intstead of 7 fluid ounces to their chocolate brownie mixture.
I couldn't understand why the brownies refused to set in the oven, they bubbled away relentlessly like Mount Vesuvious for over an hour without solidification. I only worked out the error when I finally quizzed them about what they had put in the mixing bowl!! My much used response of 'bin it' was the final answer to yet another culinary disaster, with the pair having to return the following day to 'get it right this time' and have an acceptable product to take home to family!
The third photo is of Robert Elkinton (6.2) would be Jamie Oliver who flipped a pancake too enthusiastically - it ended up on the floor rather than back in the pan. I assured him that the floor was cleaned thoroughly every night by an excellent school cleaner, and I think he might have eaten it?!
This week I am going to include something of what Daniel Brittle wrote about Christmas at the TOAST Literacy Club wich he attends.
Daniel first woke up at 2.30 am and found things in his Christmas stocking, so promptly ate some of the packet of skittles that were inside. He finally went back to sleep and woke again at 8.30 when he and his sisters opened everything in their stockings. Then they woke up their parents and went downstairs.
He writes..'Finally! we get to open all our other presents. Dad insisted though that he had a cup of tea first, so we had to wait more minutes..
The first present I opened was a book about Minecraft. then there was more interesting stuff like more books and science sets and then I opened the best present of them all - a quad copter.Then I continued opening selection box after selection box until I found the worst present of them all - a spy microphone.
It would have been fine - something I could hide and listen to the family through, secretly. Unfortunately, it was much too big to hide anywhere without it being seen!!
And the best meal I had all holiday was Toad in the Hole on New Year's Day!
Today, 8th February sees the start of the Chinese New Year. The celebrations started on Sunday evening (New Year's Eve) and, I believe, last for 15 days. A chocolate bar to the first 5 boys who come to find me
and wish me Happy New Year in Mandarin Chinese, and tell me which animal it is being celebrated this Year. The characteristics of those born under this zodiac sign are:
- Strengths: sociable, innovative, enthusiastic, self-assured
- Weaknesses: suspicious, cunning, selfish, arrogant, jealous
And finally, don't forget that February 9th is
Pancake Day, also called Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras (which is French for "Fat Tuesday"), is the last day of feasting before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It's called so due to the tradition of eating pancakes on the day. This tradition comes from a time where any rich foods were eaten on the day before Lent, and fasting begins. The date can vary from as early as February 3rd to as late as March 9th.
Families used up ingredients like eggs, milk and flour to make pancakes which probably wouldn't be used during Lent. The recipe for the batter is the same as that for Yorkshire Puddings; the batter is supposed to perform best if made with some ice cold water, and apparantly, in times past, they were made with snow!
Sunday 24 January 2016
Hi everyone
Well here's the first full blog of 2016 as promised.
It was a busy Autumn Term for Food Tech. As usual, groups of year 9 and year 7 boys came for whole day sessions - they only get one session per year so I have to try hard to make the experience one of learning, fun, and achievement and there are always competitions during the day.
The boys are always so eager and they often come out with funny expressions which make me laugh. If the things they say or do are worth recording, I photograph their disasters or type up their comments and these go on my Wall of Fame/Shame for all to read and see.
Only this week we had 2 brilliant quotes from Year 7's:
'Miss - shall I empty the drain?' Translation - Shall I pull the plug out of the sink?
Another boy, pointing to the microwave in the corner...'Miss, what do you keep in the safe?'
The sixth form students are brilliant at doing weird things.
Last year I caught 2 of them with orange flavoured Nutella spread. They had stirred it into their chicken curry. When questioned by myself as to what is was for, they replied, 'Well Miss - you told us that the Mexicans often put dark chocolate into their Chilli con Carne so we thought we would experiment!'
Another sixth former who only claim to fame was his brilliance at playing the bass guitar , made a crumble mix that looked as if it had maggots in it. I questioned the ingredients he had added, determined to find the source of the maggots. He had mixed in a large quantity of Lazy Ginger - strips of ginger in vinegar that we use in Chinese stir-fries, thinking that this product was similar to the dried ginger powder often used in baking!!
I will fill you in on other funnies as they arise this year.
Just before Xmas, two 6.1 boys organized a chapati making competition for 6 pairs of sixth formers.
the contestants had to prepare and fry chappattis to be sampled by 3 judges.
These 3 teachers had kindly volunteered to taste and score all the chapatis and find the winners.
The judges were: Mr Ratner, who professed to knowing how the chapatis should taste, Mrs Mehta who certainly knows how to make chapatis, and Mr Ridler who doesn't know the first thing about making or rating chapatis but just loves (free) food and joined the judges to help them in their task.
Mr Collins did come in to see what was on offer for hungry teachers, but quickly departed. I wonder why?
Thanks also go to Cameron Hodgetts of Year 9, who was on crowd control. He did an excellent job in scrutinizing all those sixth formers who tried to get through the door and ousting every gatecrasher.
We hope to run another of these events this term as there were quite a few 6.1's who wanted to take part.
My only problem was the huge amount of flour everywhere after the competition. One boy had more on his blazer than was acceptable so we had to do a quick wash and tumble dry before Period 5 - the blazer, not the boy!
Last week Mr Ratner delivered a cross-curricular biology lesson for yr 7's with me. Boys were given doughnuts and many other smaller sweet items to create something resembling animal and plant cells with this food. The various components of these different cells were labelled and the finished product photographed before being devoured just prior to 4pm or packed away for later. Hyperactive sons probably presented themselves back home with parents also wondering why they didn't want any tea?!!!
I hope to use this blog to give you snippets about food - interesting facts or stories, new findings, new ideas, new products etc.
Here's a few for this blog....
Why do we love chocolate so much?
Texture - it melts at just below blood temperature, the same temperature as our mouths, which accounts for that oozing sensation after the first few seconds
Taste - chocolate contains at least 300 natural chemical compounds, resulting in a complex range of tastes, which connect with our brain as they run over the most sensitive taste zones of our tongue.
Mike Longman, a Chocolate Wizard from Cornwall had to build his own grinder from an industrial flatbead maker from India. He fitted a new motor so that it would grind cocoa beans for 4 days straight - the time required to reduce the cocoa nibs and raw demerara sugar to 25 microns - about an eighth of a human hair - the optimum particle size for the ultimate bar of chocolate!
Each blog will also have extracts from written work being done in my Literacy TOAST club where certain boys are striving to improve their writing and attempt various 'projects' set by me and Miss Slater.
The first work in the next blog, will be from Daniel Brittle who tells us about his 2015 Xmas experiences.
Your chance to enter a competition for writing and expression...
Write a piece for me entitled ...'my Last Supper'.
Imagine that a meteorite is due to hit the earth tomorrow, and tonight you can have the last meal of your choice. Tell me what starter, main course and dessert you would chose and why, where you would have this meal and why, and chose 2 additional guests (apart from family and friends) who you would like to invite, and why. These guests could be from the past or the present - eg. celebrities, sports personalities, famous people from history. Bring the neatly presented work into Food Tech for judging. The best ones will win prizes and be blog-published. I am a stickler for correct spelling so take care to get that right.
Briefly, I would chose...a seafood platter, steak and chips, and a huge jug of custard. I will explain choices next time. I would have the meal at sunset, on the rocks overlooking the Irish Sea at the special bungalow we stay at every year on Anglesey. My chosen guests would be Graham Norton and Anne Boleyn!! Again, reasons given next time.
Finally, the first boy to bring me the answers to these 6 quiz questions will gain a house point and a chocolate bar.
a type of sushi - a rice filled, seasoned tofu pouch (5)
vine leaf chewed in South Asia as a mild stimulant (5)
Raspberry ....... popular flavour of ice cream (6)
A generic Indian term for a mixture of ground spices (6)
City in Lorraine, France, famous for its macarons (5)
What is Mrs Phillips' favourite animal? (7)
Signing off for now .....Mrs P
Well here's the first full blog of 2016 as promised.
It was a busy Autumn Term for Food Tech. As usual, groups of year 9 and year 7 boys came for whole day sessions - they only get one session per year so I have to try hard to make the experience one of learning, fun, and achievement and there are always competitions during the day.
The boys are always so eager and they often come out with funny expressions which make me laugh. If the things they say or do are worth recording, I photograph their disasters or type up their comments and these go on my Wall of Fame/Shame for all to read and see.
Only this week we had 2 brilliant quotes from Year 7's:
'Miss - shall I empty the drain?' Translation - Shall I pull the plug out of the sink?
Another boy, pointing to the microwave in the corner...'Miss, what do you keep in the safe?'
The sixth form students are brilliant at doing weird things.
Last year I caught 2 of them with orange flavoured Nutella spread. They had stirred it into their chicken curry. When questioned by myself as to what is was for, they replied, 'Well Miss - you told us that the Mexicans often put dark chocolate into their Chilli con Carne so we thought we would experiment!'
Another sixth former who only claim to fame was his brilliance at playing the bass guitar , made a crumble mix that looked as if it had maggots in it. I questioned the ingredients he had added, determined to find the source of the maggots. He had mixed in a large quantity of Lazy Ginger - strips of ginger in vinegar that we use in Chinese stir-fries, thinking that this product was similar to the dried ginger powder often used in baking!!
I will fill you in on other funnies as they arise this year.
Just before Xmas, two 6.1 boys organized a chapati making competition for 6 pairs of sixth formers.
the contestants had to prepare and fry chappattis to be sampled by 3 judges.
These 3 teachers had kindly volunteered to taste and score all the chapatis and find the winners.
The judges were: Mr Ratner, who professed to knowing how the chapatis should taste, Mrs Mehta who certainly knows how to make chapatis, and Mr Ridler who doesn't know the first thing about making or rating chapatis but just loves (free) food and joined the judges to help them in their task.
Mr Collins did come in to see what was on offer for hungry teachers, but quickly departed. I wonder why?
Thanks also go to Cameron Hodgetts of Year 9, who was on crowd control. He did an excellent job in scrutinizing all those sixth formers who tried to get through the door and ousting every gatecrasher.
We hope to run another of these events this term as there were quite a few 6.1's who wanted to take part.
My only problem was the huge amount of flour everywhere after the competition. One boy had more on his blazer than was acceptable so we had to do a quick wash and tumble dry before Period 5 - the blazer, not the boy!
Last week Mr Ratner delivered a cross-curricular biology lesson for yr 7's with me. Boys were given doughnuts and many other smaller sweet items to create something resembling animal and plant cells with this food. The various components of these different cells were labelled and the finished product photographed before being devoured just prior to 4pm or packed away for later. Hyperactive sons probably presented themselves back home with parents also wondering why they didn't want any tea?!!!
I hope to use this blog to give you snippets about food - interesting facts or stories, new findings, new ideas, new products etc.
Here's a few for this blog....
Why do we love chocolate so much?
Texture - it melts at just below blood temperature, the same temperature as our mouths, which accounts for that oozing sensation after the first few seconds
Taste - chocolate contains at least 300 natural chemical compounds, resulting in a complex range of tastes, which connect with our brain as they run over the most sensitive taste zones of our tongue.
Mike Longman, a Chocolate Wizard from Cornwall had to build his own grinder from an industrial flatbead maker from India. He fitted a new motor so that it would grind cocoa beans for 4 days straight - the time required to reduce the cocoa nibs and raw demerara sugar to 25 microns - about an eighth of a human hair - the optimum particle size for the ultimate bar of chocolate!
Each blog will also have extracts from written work being done in my Literacy TOAST club where certain boys are striving to improve their writing and attempt various 'projects' set by me and Miss Slater.
The first work in the next blog, will be from Daniel Brittle who tells us about his 2015 Xmas experiences.
Your chance to enter a competition for writing and expression...
Write a piece for me entitled ...'my Last Supper'.
Imagine that a meteorite is due to hit the earth tomorrow, and tonight you can have the last meal of your choice. Tell me what starter, main course and dessert you would chose and why, where you would have this meal and why, and chose 2 additional guests (apart from family and friends) who you would like to invite, and why. These guests could be from the past or the present - eg. celebrities, sports personalities, famous people from history. Bring the neatly presented work into Food Tech for judging. The best ones will win prizes and be blog-published. I am a stickler for correct spelling so take care to get that right.
Briefly, I would chose...a seafood platter, steak and chips, and a huge jug of custard. I will explain choices next time. I would have the meal at sunset, on the rocks overlooking the Irish Sea at the special bungalow we stay at every year on Anglesey. My chosen guests would be Graham Norton and Anne Boleyn!! Again, reasons given next time.
Finally, the first boy to bring me the answers to these 6 quiz questions will gain a house point and a chocolate bar.
a type of sushi - a rice filled, seasoned tofu pouch (5)
vine leaf chewed in South Asia as a mild stimulant (5)
Raspberry ....... popular flavour of ice cream (6)
A generic Indian term for a mixture of ground spices (6)
City in Lorraine, France, famous for its macarons (5)
What is Mrs Phillips' favourite animal? (7)
Signing off for now .....Mrs P
Monday 4 January 2016
Hi everyone
Well, it's the New Year 2016 and one of my resolutions is to re-launch the Food Tech Blog after a couple of years of non-posting, due to lack of time, motivation, and seeming lack of interest from the pupils of Queen Mary's Grammar School.
However, several of the current Year 7 boys informed me that they have been reading the last few blogs and this prompted me to consider starting it up again. One Year 7 boy has offered to help with the re-launch so that's useful! Hopefully, in time, pupils will volunteer to post articles or quizzes on this blog and that would be great!
When I logged in today, I noted that, since the original launch, thousands of people from across the world have viewed it at some point, so I must admit that I feel rather guilty that there hasn't been much to read of late!
So, once term starts, I will announce the re-launch by way of posters around the school and notices in assemblies and then I hope to post a new blog every 2 weeks or so. There will be general chat, amusing anecdotes about things that the pupils say and do in my lessons, and then there will be interesting facts about food, and often a quiz to take part in for a prize or house points.
If anyone reading this wants to get involved with the blog in any way please come and see me.
Mrs P
Well, it's the New Year 2016 and one of my resolutions is to re-launch the Food Tech Blog after a couple of years of non-posting, due to lack of time, motivation, and seeming lack of interest from the pupils of Queen Mary's Grammar School.
However, several of the current Year 7 boys informed me that they have been reading the last few blogs and this prompted me to consider starting it up again. One Year 7 boy has offered to help with the re-launch so that's useful! Hopefully, in time, pupils will volunteer to post articles or quizzes on this blog and that would be great!
When I logged in today, I noted that, since the original launch, thousands of people from across the world have viewed it at some point, so I must admit that I feel rather guilty that there hasn't been much to read of late!
So, once term starts, I will announce the re-launch by way of posters around the school and notices in assemblies and then I hope to post a new blog every 2 weeks or so. There will be general chat, amusing anecdotes about things that the pupils say and do in my lessons, and then there will be interesting facts about food, and often a quiz to take part in for a prize or house points.
If anyone reading this wants to get involved with the blog in any way please come and see me.
Mrs P
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!
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 壓歲錢/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? ......................................................................
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