Monthly workshop for students

Good morning LTHers,
I am a teacher at a small high school and a colleague and I would like to start a monthly kitchen session, in which we would just like to get the kids away from the X box and maybe just learn something about cooking. We have access to the commercial kitchen at school and we were thinking of conducting a class for about 20 students. We would like to have a theme each session whether it be quick meal, Italian, or specializing in pork. Whatever it may be. I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to what themes might be best for a small group of very good high school kids.
thanks,
bern bern

Hi,

If you can locate someone who has an Italian family member who makes pasta, then I would have a fresh pasta class including hand forming ravioli's, tortellinis, ect. IT is an unusual skill, which they can demonstrate later.

Ditto for Chinese: making homemade eggrolls, wontons and dumplings would put them in the different league and better than most restaurants. You may find this homemade potsticker thread inspiring.

German spaetzle are easy and best when made fresh.

One of the lessons I still remember from Home Ec in 7th grade was a film strip on making cream sauces. It was one cup milk, a teaspoon of salt, then butter:flour from 1-4 tablespoons. It's all simple once you know how and beguiling when you don't.

Learning how to make pie crust is 1-2-3 once you know and more convenient than the frozen or premade stuff. Filling is a snap, though crust is technique. (You seem to be in Chicago, so potentially I could teach this.)

These are great ideas. I was thinking along the lines of teaching them how to make their own pasta and sauce so that when they go off to college, they'll be able to wow their friends with an impressive meal on a small buget. These ideas are very helpful.
thanks

I used to teach cooking to high schoolers at summer camp. They were always receptive to everything.

Here are a few topics that can be easily explored:

Boiling water: basics of cooking pasta, making fresh sauce, cooking meats (roasting/grilling/sauteing/etc), making salad dressing, etc - simple stuff that impresses

Knife Skills: how to really handle a knife -- in the process of teaching knife skills, you can teach them how to make different basic dishes

Soups: teach them cream soups, stock-based soups, etc. This is basic and fun because there are so many possible combinations of vegetables, meats, and starches.

Muffins and cakes - learn to use the creaming method to make radically different treats.

etc....

Good luck!

How 'bout a Mexican theme? You can buy prepared masa and make tortillas either by hand or with a press (or sopes, huaraches, etc). It sounds complicated but it's actually not that hard and fun with a group because you can make lots of different toppings and everyone can construct their own.
Another fun recipe is "Vietnamese" (in quotes because you can lots of varied, potentially non-traditional ingredients) spring rolls. You can get rice paper wrappings at an Asian food store. You basically just dip them in warm water and add veggies (I like peapods, shredded carrots, jicama, steamed sweet potato chunks, bell peppers), grilled meat, shrimp, etc. The traditional sauces (a peanut sauce and nuoc cham--fish sauce based) are very easy to make as well. You could combine this the potsticker mentioned above for an Asian theme (great idea, Cathy2).
These type of recipes work for a crowd because everyone can chop/prepare a different ingredient (they could even choose a topping before hand to take part in the planning) and they're healthy.

Hi,

I phoned this evening my teenage nieces who took a cooking class last year, which I occasionally commented on. You may want to read through them because as much as the teacher was consider boring. I noticed both girls learned a lot.

My nieces have belonged to the cooking club at their high school. When I mentioned your query, the elder immediately felt you should ask your students. She felt the kids are more enthusiastic when they are learning something they are indeed interested in. Meanwhile, I did get her to outline what have been successful meetings: chocolate fondue, making pizza's to individual tastes, pasta dishes and something called puppy chow. A dismal failure was french toast, apparently wasn't considered anything special.

I haven't yet spoken to the younger niece. If she offers anything new, I will be certain to mention it.

BTW - I liked the masa party mentioned above.

Regards,

The thing I remember most about home ec in school was how little the food we cooked resembled anything we ate at home. I consider this class among the primary reasons I never developed any interest in cooking till I was in college.

We made white sauce. I'd never eaten anything made with white sauce and couldn't imagine I would ever want to. We made chicken soup -- something I ate regularly at home -- but in class, we were instructed to make it with scrawny frying chickens during the 50-minute class and to add bouillon cubes "for flavor." The result was a pallid, salty liquid that had nothing whatever to do with the rich, long-simmered broth my grandmother made.

So my advice would be to find out from your students about their favorite foods and create lesson plans around such things -- and use authentic recipes.

BB:

Without a doubt teach stir fry. A basic understanding of stir fry techniques will serve these children a lifetime. There is no easier way to produce a meal thats as tasty, nutritious, quick, and cheap.

This can also be used as introduction to a myriad of culinary related topics: knife skills, marinades, sauces, using leftovers, etc. There is no complicated equipment involved, almost any pan can do, almost any combination of ingredients can be involved, every culture and taste can be satisfied.

I will add that you would be greatly remiss in not persuing Cathy2 on her potential offer regarding teaching pie techniques. I would gladly pay dearly for such honors.

-ramon