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I asked ten 13 year olds at their last and final class what they would say if they had to dole out advice from what they learned while at Take Back the Kitchen:
“Grapes dry into raisins because of the sun”
“Raisins help you use the bathroom”
“I learned that people from different backgrounds eat different things. For example in France they eat frogs.
“Don’t say “I hate onions or onions are nasty” say “I don’t care for onions”
“The yolk (of an egg) is the nourishment for the chick”
“I learned that cutting onions builds character”
“You need to try things 11 times before you get accustomed to it”
“If your pee is dark yellow, you don’t drink enough water”
“if you don’t chew your food well, it does not go down so well”
“Every culture is unique and special”
I recently taught a few classes with some fantastic students from the Murphy School in Dorchester and their instructor, Mr. G. Mr. G. is the kind of teacher I can only describe as someone who was born to be an educator. He had a special kind of rapport with his students that is only established when a teacher is both great at their job and really cares about their students.
During our second class together, he mentioned that he now lets his son, who was a part of the first class the group took, use a knife in the kitchen – a task he was previously barred from. He said that now that his son had had a lesson in how to properly use a knife, he felt more comfortable letting him be a part of those aspects of dinner preparation.
I think this is a common sentiment around young people’s abilities in the kitchen. We have all kinds of concerns over their safety or assume they won’t be interested. At TBK we find time and again that when you bring kids into the kitchen and get them involved in cooking their own meals, they have a great time and are more inclined to eat the food they made, even if that means eating the butternut squash you insisted on putting in the lasagna.
I often see “kids cooking” relegated to the realm of the dessert and at TBK we strive to push past that, rarely even making desserts but having our students, most of whom are new to the kitchen, making whole meals from scratch – lasagna, burgers, stews, and curries. Desserts are saved for special occasions, like the final class of a series and are always in addition to the recipe we’re making for our dinner. So after a demonstration and a stern talk about safety, we hand our students chef’s knives and get them chopping.
In this recent class, with the Youth and Police Partnership, the students made Chicken Broccoli Ziti, a pasta dish made with roasted chicken, broccoli and a cream sauce. The students learned how to make a Bechamel sauce, a basic technique in classical french cooking, and we talked about why making something at home that you could easily buy as a take-out meal is so important.
The students almost always talk about the freshness of the food and how you can make it healthier at home. We also talked about how the home-made meal was actually cheaper than a take-out meal since you get more servings from the ingredients you purchase. We talk about all of these issues and then, when we pass the plates around and dig in, the room goes silent. In these moments, I love the sound of silence.
ZITI WITH CHICKEN & BROCCOLI
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. In a large stockpot, boil a lot of water for the pasta and add a pinch of salt (this brings out the starch in the pasta).
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place a chicken in a casserole dish or roasting pan. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with 1 clove minced garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Roast the chicken in the oven until there is no pink left in the meat and the juices run clear when the chicken is cut, about 20 minutes. When the chicken is cooked, remove from the oven and let it cool.
3. Meanwhile, in a heavy small saucepan, heat the butter. Add the garlic and sauté over low heat for about 2 minutes. Add the flour. Stir well and with a whisk, slowly pour in the milk/half and half. Continue to whisk well. Bring to a boil and cook 2 minutes. Turn the heat off and add the cheese, stir until it is melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add the ziti to the boiling water and boil 7 minutes. Add the broccoli and boil another 3 minutes. Drain the pasta/broccoli and rinse with cold water (this stops it from cooking once you have decided it is done – you decide by tasting!).
5. Put the pasta, chicken, and broccoli in a casserole dish, then pour the cream sauce on top. Sprinkle the top with some more cheese and bake for 25 minutes in a 350 oven or serve right from the dish!
While this may be old news to seasoned cooks, I never seem to hear the end of the pain and suffering that chopping onions inflicts on the middle school students I teach each Tuesday. While I assure them that the “aromatics” – onions, garlic, etc. – are what make our food so flavorful, it doesn’t seem to offer much consolation.
I love hearing the tactics they all offer to avoid crying in front of their classmates. One student’s grandma keeps her onions in the refrigerator while someone’s uncle swears by putting the onions in cold water first. They often express the desire to wear goggles while working through the onions for our meal and last week Carol, the supervisor at the Bakery Cafe, offered an ingenious suggestion that had students wrapping plastic wrap around their eyes. I’m not sure it worked but I did get the priceless picture above.
The girls above participate in a program called GREAT (Gang Resistance Education And Training) through their school. The program is run by Boston police officer Bill Baxter who has dedicated his life to working with youth and has, I’m sure, impacted countless lives in the Boston area. Officer Baxter, or Officer Donut as the students affectionately call him, brings a group of seventh graders to Haley House each week during the school year where we teach cultural understanding through food.
We pile our ingredients in the center of the table and get to work on them after we spend the first portion of our class learning about the culture where our week’s recipe originated. We regularly travel to far flung regions in India, Italy, Jamaica, and Cape Verde.
For our final celebratory class, this group wanted to make Pastelon – a lasagna-like dish from the Caribbean that layers deliciously spiced ground beef with fried plantains, cheese, and is baked until warm and bubbling. I didn’t make many changes to the recipe but we did bake the platanos rather than fry them and I think the final dish came out just as spectacular.
When Officer Bill asked the students what they thought of our final meal, on a scale of one to ten, we got a “one million” and an “infinity” so I’d call it a success. Served with some of the bakery cafe’s famous coleslaw, I’d call this a fantastic dinner.
Pastelón
Barely adapted from http://thenoshery.com/
Preparation
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter square pan with 1 tbs of butter.
Combine, beef, onion, pepper, garlic, cilantro, adobo, oregano, vinegar and sazon. Mix well.
Heat a large skillet at medium-high heat with 2 Tbs of olive oil, add meat mixture.
Cook beef until brown and of the juices bubble up, add bay leaves, olives, raisins and tomato sauce. Mix and let simmer for 10 minutes, set aside.
Prepare a cookie sheet or large baking pan with a thin coat of vegetable oil. Place thinly sliced plantains on the oiled sheet in a single layer then brush each plantain with a thin coat of oil on the top side. Sprinkle the plantains with salt and pepper then bake them in the oven for approx. 10 minutes or until they begin to brown. When browned, remove plantains from the oven and turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees.
To assemble pastelon: Take your prepared square pan, start with a layer of plantains, then beef, then a fistful of cheese, repeat. You want to finish with cheese and plantains. Beat 3 eggs with 2 Tbs of milk, pour over the pastelón. Let it sit for a minute allowing the egg to soak in. Top off with just a bit more cheese.
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!
