Celebration of Traditional Food Oxclose Nursery School- Spennymoor-England
Traditional Food Project Our first job was to decide which foods were traditional food in our Country and region. We came up with a list of: Sunday roast lunch with Yorkshire puddings Victoria Sponge cake Fruit scones Cheese scones Jam tarts Corned beef, potato and onion pasties Toad in the Hole English breakfast Porridge Banana Tea Bread Oat biscuits And the great British Fish and Chips!
The Children were very excited about helping to make the different traditional foods.
Recipe 1- Toad in the Hole Despite it s name, there are no toads involved in this recipe! Toad in the Hole is a sausage cooked in batter. Ingredients: Vegetable oil 200 grams of Plain Flour 1 pint of milk 2 eggs Pinch of salt 1 lb of sausages Method: Heat the oven to 220 degrees C, 425 degrees F or Gas Mark 7 1. Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl. 2. Make a little hollow in the middle of the flour. 3. Crack the eggs into the hollow. 4. Carefully stir the eggs so that they gather a little of the flour at a time. 5. Add a little milk at a time until all of the milk, eggs and flour are mixed together. 6. Consistency should be like thick cream.
7. Heat up the oil in the tray and cook the sausages for about ten minutes until very, very hot. 8. Pour the batter over the partly cooked sausages and cook for a further 30 minutes. We used small sausages and individual muffin trays to make small Toad in the Hole portions for the children s snack. Seb and Amelia helped me to make these. They had great fun. Seb and Amelia took turns to add a little splash of oil into each muffin tray ready to heat up in the oven. The oil has to get very hot. Then Amelia weighed out 200g of flour and added the salt. The next job was to make a hollow in the flour and to crack in the eggs. Amelia did a great job here. She then started to carefully mix in the flour, little by little.
Seb then started to add the milk, little by little, mixing it in each time. The flour is disappearing, Seb discovered. When his arms got tired of stirring, Amelia helped out again and stirred while Seb poured in the milk. It s turning yellow!, Amelia noticed. Seb told me a lovely story about his Gran. They like to bake together. He told me that Gran is the sloppiest cook. I told Seb that I bet I was sloppier than his Gran. Seb chuckled. I carefully popped the sausages into the oil and got them nice and hot. I then poured the batter mix over the sausages and left them to cook for another 20 minutes for the small puddings and 30 minutes for the large pudding.
. The finished dish!
The snack of Toad in the Hole was very popular with the children. We had never had this as a snack before in Nursery so it was a very special treat. Seb told me, I think it s the best snack ever! Our snack, ready to go to the children in their group room. Great job Seb and Amelia. You made the perfect Toad in the Hole.
Recipe 2- Full English Breakfast This is not something that we eat every day but a treat every now and again. Ingredients: Sausage Bacon Eggs Mushrooms Baked Beans Bread A little oil for frying. Utensils: Frying Pan Knife Fork
Grace and Kaden wanted to help me to make a full English Breakfast Method: 1. Add a little oil to the frying pan and place it on the heat. 2. Add 2 sausages and turn regularly. 3. After 10 minutes, add 2 rashers of bacon. 4. Peel the mushrooms and cut them into slices. 5. Open the tin of baked beans and place the required amount in a bowl ready to microwave or heat up in a pan later.
6. Crack two eggs into a bowl. Kaden was very confident that he could crack the eggs himself. He did a great job. 7. Using a fork, whisk the egg with some salt and pepper. 8. Place it in the microwave and keep stirring after every 30 seconds until the egg is cooked. 9. When cooked, plate everything with a slice of toast.
The finished dish. Kaden and Grace just finished making this lovely full English breakfast just in time for my lunch! Yum, yum! Thank you both for helping me today. You were great at taking turns and chatted about what we were doing throughout the activity. You were both very confident cooks- you have obviously helped out in the kitchen before!
Recipe 3- Cheese Scones These scones are a lovely savoury addition to teatime. Ingredients: 175g of Self Raising Flour A pinch of salt and pepper Half a teaspoon of mustard powder 25g margarine 75g cheese, grated 1 medium egg 2x 15ml soon of milk (2 tablespoons) Preparation: Heat the oven to 220 degrees C, 425 degrees F or gas Mark 7. Grease a baking tray.
1. Mix flour, mustard powder, salt and pepper together and rub in the margarine. To rub in the margarine you need to squash the margarine and flour between your fingers and rub together. The mixture should resemble breadcrumbs when completely rubbed in. We had a little mishap with the margarine and it fell on the table as Danny poured it into the bowl. Miss. Smith and Emily thought this was very funny.
Emily is using the rubbing in method brilliantly here. Great team work ensured that a great job was done! 2. Grate the cheese and mix it into the flour, reserving a little to sprinkle on the top of the scones at the end.
3. Whisk the egg and milk and add it to the mixture. Mix to a soft dough. Save a little to brush the scones at the end to glaze them. 4. Roll out the dough to a round 1.5cm thickness and cut into triangles (we made circles using cutters). 5. Place the scones on the greased baking tray and brush them with the egg/milk mix then sprinkle them with cheese.
The finished scones looked like this. Another yummy snack of traditional food! Thank you Danny and Emily for making such a yummy snack for your friends. Emily and Danny worked brilliantly together, taking turns and helping each other along the way. Danny loved getting his hands all greasy when he covered the baking tray with butter. 6. Bake the scones in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown. 7. Whilst still warm, cut in half and spread the scone with butter then eat. Scones would be eaten at a traditional tea-time. Years ago, the gentry would have high-tea at approximately 4 o clock. This would consist of finger sandwiches, scones, cakes and biscuits. This would satisfy their hunger and they would have dinner later in the evening.
Recipe 4- Rich Fruit Scones Ingredients: 225g Self raising Flour Pinch of salt 50g Margarine 25g Caster Sugar 50g Currants/Sultanas 1 medium egg beaten with sufficient milk to make 150 ml of liquid. Preparation: Heat the oven to 220 degrees C, 425 degrees F or gas Mark 7 and grease a baking tray lightly.
Katie and Lucas kindly offered to make the rich fruit scones for snack. 1. Mix the flour and salt then rub in the margarine. The mixture should resemble breadcrumbs when it is ready. 2. Stir in the sugar. You can see how much fun Katie and Lucas are having squashing the butter between their fingers. They kept showing off their dirty hands proudly!
3. Stir in the fruit. 4. Add egg and milk but keep a little to glaze the tops. The recipe does not include glace cherries but I remember my mum adding cherries to scones when I was young so we added 50g of cherries too. Katie chopped them in half professionally!
5. Knead together lightly and turn out the mixture on a floured board. Very sticky hands again! Just look at the smile on Lucas s face. What great team work! Lucas loves the messy jobs! Covering the baking tray in butter. 6. Roll out the mixture to 1cm thick large round. Using a cutter, cut into 6.5 cm rounds. Re-roll the trimmings and cut more rounds. 7. Brush the tops with egg and milk and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
The finished scones.. Lucas and Katie, you both worked together brilliantly and shared the jobs well. Katie, you liked the weighing and chopping activities whilst Lucas preferred getting all messy with the mixing and greasing tasks. It was a very delicious snack that you made for the children and I can see that you are both champion bakers. Well done and thank you for your help. Traditionally, the fruit scones are served with thick clotted cream and fruit laden jam. There is much debate as to whether the jam should go on the scone first with the cream on top or the cream goes on the scone first with the jam sitting on top! Again, this recipe was a firm high-tea favourite.
Recipe 5- Oatmeal Biscuits Ingredients: 150g Self Raising Four 150g medium oatmeal Pinch of salt 75g caster sugar 75g margarine Milk to mix Preparation: Heat oven to 180 degrees C, 350 degrees F or Gas Mark 4. Grease some baking trays.
Olivia and Lola volunteered to help make the oatmeal biscuits.
1. Mix the dry ingredients and rub in the margarine. 2. Add sufficient milk to make a stiff dough. 3. Roll out thinly and cut into 7.5cm rounds (we made small ones for snack). 4. Place on the baking trays and bake for about 15 minutes.
You both worked very hard together to make a delicious snack for your friends. I could tell that you enjoyed the baking activity. These biscuits originate from Scotland but are a firm favourite in England too.
Recipe 6- Victoria Sandwich Cake and Fairy Buns This is a delicious cake recipe dating back to Queen Victoria s reign. Ingredients: 200g margarine 200g caster sugar 4 medium eggs 200g Self Raising Flour Preparation: Heat the oven to 180 degrees C, 350 degrees F or gas Mark 4. Grease two 18cm sandwich tins.
1. Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. 2. Beat the eggs and add them to the bowl. Gently fold them in being careful not to beat the mixture too much.
3. Gently fold in the flour, a little at a time. 4. Place the mixture in the prepared tins and bake for approximately 30-40 minutes. Ava and Erin had lots of fun getting messy, greasing the tins.
Our cakes were ready to go into the oven. We placed a small amount of the mixture in three small muffin cases as we wanted to show you our Fairy Buns too. The recipe is exactly the same. It is just a different way to present the cakes. Our children love the fairy buns and they are a great twist on a classic traditional cake.
Stage 2- Filling the cake with jam and butter cream. We had some different helpers to ice the cake. Fearne, Katie, Ruby, Hannah and Brooke all helped to ice the cake. Ingredients: 100g butter 200g of sieved icing sugar Jam- preferably strawberry Method: 1. Cream the butter, gradually adding the icing sugar. You could add lots of different flavours to this base icing such as vanilla essence, lemon, coffee, melted chocolate or cocoa.
1. Spread the jam over one of the sponge cakes to cover the surface. 2. Spread the butter icing on the bottom of the other cake. 3. Place the iced cake on top of the jammed cake and sprinkle sieved icing sugar on top.
An alternative way to present the cakes are as Fairy Buns. A firm favourite with the children. 1. Cut a rounded section out of the top of the cake and cut it in half to make the wings. 2. Place a spoonful of jam inside the hole that is left in the cake. 3. Add a spoonful of butter icing on top of the jam. 4. Place the wings back on top of the cake.
and of course, the best bit is..licking out the bowl.
Recipe 7- Shortcrust pastry (we have used this in two of our recipes) Shortcrust pastry is used in our Cornish Pasties and Jam Tart recipes. Ingredients: 225g Plain Flour Pinch of salt 50g lard 50g margarine Cold water to mix (2 tablespoons approximately) 25g sugar for sweet pastry (i.e. jam tarts, apple pies)
1. Mix the flour and salt in the basin and rub in the fat. Oliver and Evie loved their messy hands! 2. Using a knife to cut and stir, mix with the cold water to form a dough.
Recipe 8- Jam Tarts This recipe uses the short crust pastry made in the last recipe. Start with one pastry ball made as recipe 7. Ingredients: Shortcrust pastry Jam (various flavours) Preparation: Heat the oven to 200 degrees C, 400 degrees F or Gas Mark 6.
1. Roll out the pastry thinly and cut rounds using a 7.5 cm cutter. 2. Place the pastry rounds in the patty tins. 3. Place a spoon full of jam or lemon curd in each pastry round. 4. Bake for about 15 minutes. Cutting out rounds. Filling the cases with jam. Rolling out the pastry thinly.
The finished jam tarts
Recipe 9- Cornish Pasties These pasties originate from Cornwell in the South of England. It was a popular bait item with the tin miners of Cornwell who took them for their lunch down in the mines. They were filling and wholesome. Sometimes, one half would have meat in and the other half would have jam in. This made a two course lunch with dinner and dessert in one! Now, we eat these hearty pasties as a meal on their own and they are very popular in the North of England too. Ingredients: Shortcrust pastry as recipe 7 Corned beef Onion Potato Salt and pepper to season Preparation: Heat the oven to 220 degrees C, 425 degrees F or Gas Mark 7
1. Divide the pastry into 4 pieces and rollout each piece into a round shape about 0.5 cm thick. You can cut around a plate to get a proper round shape. 2. Peel and boil your potatoes until soft. 3. Chop the onion into very small pieces.
4. Mix the potatoes, onion and corned beef together and mash until well mixed. Season with salt and pepper. 5. Divide the meat mix into the four rounds, dampen the edges and draw up the sides so that they meet up in the middle. 6. Firmly press together, flute with the fingers and brush with beaten egg or milk. To flute the edges, Porter pinch the edge with his fingers to make a wobbly edge. Mix all of the ingredients together and mash. Porter placed a good dollop of mixture in the middle of the pastry.
The finished pasty.
Recipe 10- Traditional Roast Lunch The traditional Sunday roast lunch is probably the favourite meal of most Northerners in England. It takes a lot of effort to prepare and little time to eat! The meat can be roast beef, chicken, turkey (at Christmas) or pork. Ingredients: Chicken/ Roast Beef Potatoes Carrots Turnip Cabbage Parsnips Peas Batter mix- recipe 1 Oil Honey Gravy Granules Butter
The first job is to cook the meat according to the size of the roast. Roast potatoes and parsnips accompany this meal. To make these: 1. Peel and part boil for 5 minutes your potatoes and halved parsnips. 2. Drain off the excess water and place them in a very hot roasting tray of oil. 3. Drizzle a little honey over the parsnips. 4. Place in a hot oven 220 degrees C for 45 minutes to 1 hour until golden brown.
Prepare the vegetables: 1. Peel and slice the carrots. These can be boiled or steamed for approximately 20 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how soft you like them. 2. Peel and dice the turnip into small pieces. Boil in a pan of hot water for approximately 30 minutes until soft. Mash when cooked with a knob of butter and some black pepper.
3. Tear the cabbage leaves into strips and steam for approximately 20 minutes until tender. 4. Just before everything is ready, boil some peas for 5 minutes. 5. Make Yorkshire puddings as in recipe 1 but do not add the sausages. Small individual puddings are served with traditional Sunday lunch.
Just before serving, mix up some gravy granules. You can add cooked onion and leeks to this to make a delicious gravy. The completed lunch. You can choose any vegetables you like to accompany the Sunday roast. Broccoli and cauliflower are also popular choices. At Christmas, the traditional meat is Turkey and we add small sausages wrapped in bacon and stuffing balls.
Recipe 11- Banana Tea Bread This recipe is a great way of using up your bananas that have gone too ripe. Don t throw them away, they are perfect in this cake. The riper, the better! Ingredients: 225g Self raising flour ¼ teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda 75g butter 175g Caster sugar 2 medium eggs beaten 450g bananas weighed with skin 100g chopped walnuts
Preparation: Heat the oven to 180 degrees C, 350 degrees F or Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the base of a 1kg loaf tin. 1. Mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. 2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, add the eggs a little at a time alternately with the flour. Everyone had a special job. Tayla peeled and mashed the bananas, Angel beat the eggs and Sophie creamed the butter and sugar. Great work girls!
3. Stir in the remaining flour, bananas and walnuts and place the mixture in the prepared tin. All three of you girls worked brilliantly together, sharing jobs and following instructions carefully. You can see the concentration on your faces.
It was really tricky pouring the heavy mixture into the paper case. The case slipped a little bit but we thought that the cake would still be fine. The smell of the bananas was very strong. Mmmmmmmm!
The finished cake..
We had invited some of our parents in to attend a workshop with the children. We thought they could be perfect testers for our banana tea bread. They thought that the cake was delicious!
Finally, the most traditional North of England meal is fish and chips. We don t cook these ourselves as we have many fish and chip shops who do the job so much better!
We visited the fish and chip shop in Spennymoor to see how they made their fish and chips. Janet showed us the fresh fish stored in the large fridge. This machine peels all of the potatoes. We couldn t believe how many chips were waiting, pre-washed to be chipped!
Janet showed us how to make the batter with a special flour and water in a big bucket. We all had a stir. The chips are fried in very hot oil too. This machine chops the potatoes into chip shapes. The fish is dipped into the batter and fried in very hot oil.
The cooked fish. This chip shop has a restaurant area too so you can eat your fish and chips there. Maybe when you come to visit England, you can sample our traditional fish and chips in this restaurant too!
The staff thoroughly enjoyed their fish and chips!
Thank you. We hope that you enjoy trying out our recipes in your own schools. Dober tek Smaklig måltid Head isu Dobrou chut Skanaus