TOP AND TAILING ONION Before you peel an onion, you need to ‘top and tail’ it. This means that you use a knife to cut a little bit off the top where the leaves grow from and then a little bit off the bottom where the roots come from. CUT AN ONION IN […]
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Sugar Violets
INGREDIENTS Violets (edible flower) Egg white Caster sugar Baking paper Tray Small paintbrush METHOD Line the tray with paper. After picking the flowers, stand the stems in a jar of water. The flowers must stay dry. Beat the egg white with a fork or small whisk. Hold one violet and use the paintbrush to carefully paint the […]
Mashing Vegetables
MASHING POTATOES & PUMPKIN Start with large chunks of cooked potato or pumpkin in a straight sided saucepan. Use a potato masher to keep squashing the vegetables until they are smooth and there are no obvious lumps. You have to use your muscles when mashing so it might be easier to move the saucepan to […]
Rules for the Kitchen
SAFETY IN THE KITCHEN ALWAYS ASK AN ADULT TO HELP WHEN COOKING! NEVER COOK ON YOUR OWN! Use safe cutting techniques when working with knives. Ask an adult to show you how. Turn the handles of saucepans to the back of the stove so that they won’t get knocked over as you work. Always turn off blenders […]
Peeling Vegetables
Not all vegetables need to be peeled before they are eaten but they all need to be washed well first. Old potatoes should be peeled but baby potatoes just need to be scrubbed; young carrots also don’t need to be peeled before they are eaten. The recipe will tell you whether to peel a vegetable or […]
Grating Vegetables and Cheese
Vegetables and cheese are grated so that they are very thin; much thinner than can be achieved with a knife. Grated cheese is used in sandwiches and salads and hard cheeses such as parmesan are very finely grated to sprinkle over Italian dishes such as spaghetti bolognese. Graters come with different size holes. The larger […]
Healthy Food Traffic Lights
Across Australia, school canteens use the ‘traffic light’ system to help teach kids to make healthy food choices. Since this is already familiar to them, Smarty Plants has used the same symbols for our recipes so that little chefs can make good decisions on what they cook and eat. GREEN TRAFFIC LIGHT – Eat Often […]