During the week meals can easily become a monotonous task to just tick of the list. The prospect of finding a new recipe, yet alone all the ingredients, can put you right off.
BUT cooking doesn’t need to feel like this. At The Yarrow Cookery School, we want to give you the knowledge to start creating in the kitchen and having fun with your friends and family.
You might find this hard with the little ones, but by getting your children in the kitchen you can reduce their screen time whilst also increasing so many of their key development skills!
I know I’m stating the obvious when discussing the direct link between cooking from scratch and physical health, but did you know that learning to cook also:
- Improves mental health
- Improves all round self-confidence
- Increases practical mathematical understanding
- Improves digestive health
- Develops healthy eating habits
- Improves family bonding
- Lowers risk of obesity
To help get you and your family started on your journey to simple, scratch cooking, we would like to give you our recipe and secrets to the ONE dish that every child should know how to cook. The dish is…Lasagne! Why? It’s two key components; a Bolognese and a Bechamel (cheese) sauce are two of the most versatile bases in cooking.
First let’s talk about the Bolognese. When confidence of how the dish is prepared has been built, you will know that you can literally chuck any vegetables from your fridge into this delicious meal. Substitute the mince and bacon with lentils and you can make an equally delicious vegetarian dish!
The second component to a Lasagne is the cheese (bechamel) sauce. This is one of the most useful bases in cookery as it works for pasta, cauliflower, broccoli, chicken, just about most things can me improved with a cheese or white sauce!
Of course, there is no comparison to learning these skills with us in person, but we understand that you have a busy schedules, so please enjoy the recipe below and get in touch with any questions at www.yarrowcookeryschool.com. Remember; you don’t need to follow along exactly - have fun, relax, and start improvising in the kitchen, its one of the best ways to learn.
Lasagne (serves 4)
Ingredients:
Cheese (Bechamel) Sauce
- 50g plain flour
- 50g butter
- 500ml milk
- 200g cheddar (grated)
- Teaspoon of grated nutmeg
Bolognese + Pasta
500g beef mince (20% fat approx.)
4 rashers of bacon
3 x tablespoon olive oil
2 x onions
2 carrots
1 celery stick
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 x 400g tins plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons of tomato purée
2 x tablespoons of oregano
1 x beef stock cube
10 x dried lasagne sheets
125g mozzarella
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Step 1: Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Chop the bacon and add to
the pan and cook for just a few minutes until starting to turn golden.
Add the diced onion, sliced celery and chopped carrot. Cook over
a medium heat for 5 mins, stirring occasionally, until softened.
Step 2: Add 4 crushed garlic cloves and cook for 1 minute, then
turn up the heat add in the mince and cook, stirring
and breaking it up with a wooden spoon, for about 6 mins until
browned all over.
Step 3: Add the 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, oregano, tomato purée
and top up with beef stock (100ml approx.)
Step 4: Leave the beef Bolognese to simmer for 20 – 30 minutes with the
lid off. Season to taste.
Step 5: Make the béchamel sauce by adding the butter to a pan and
melt on a low heat then add the flour to make a roux, (flour butter
paste). Add 100ml of milk and then whisk, once it comes to the boil
add more milk until it is all added. Then add half the grated cheddar
cheese. Whisk and heat until it comes to a gentle boil and thickens.
Take off the heat.
Step 6: Build the lasagne by adding an even layer of beef Bolognese to an oven
tray, then cover with lasagne sheets, followed by bechamel sauce and teared
mozzarella. Repeat this process once until the tray is full. Sprinkle
the leftover grated cheese on the top.
Step 7: Bake for 35–40 minutes, or until the pasta has softened and
the topping is golden brown and bubbling. Stand for 5 minutes
before cutting to allow the filling to settle.
To join the next kid's cookery week please visit www.yarrowcookeryschool.com
Comments