When I introduced myself on this forum it was suggested that I post the recipes I was using in my night class. Originally I was just teaching Mediterranean cooking but in the third week, I was asked to take Italian cooking too. In a moment of weakness I said yes. I also had two pretty intense weeks with my band where we had a tutor down from Canada so we had band practice every night. Cooking classes were postponed for a week while I was doing that. It did however mean that I was too busy to post as I was running the class. Here, at last, is a list of what we did.
Mediterranean cooking
Excite Me Tonight! Chicken! but panfried rather than kebabs
Patatas Bravas – plenty of recipes on here that are not too different from the one I used.
Michelle's French Mayonnaise in a Flash! – this was what I demoed
Served with
Summer Sangria & Classic Sangria
Moussaka With Halloumi and Ricotta Cheese Topping
Lemon Ricotta Cake
Copycat Olive Garden Minestrone Soup by Todd Wilbur made with stock from my recipe,
Easy Prep Vegetable Stock
Caramelized Onion Foccacia (bread Machine) I made the dough in my breadmaker and then we shaped, proved and baked the loaf in class.
Spanakopita – again plenty of recipes on here similar to my one. An interesting thing that we did in this lesson was trial different ways of making it. Some made one big pie, others did triangles or rolls (like spring rolls) or a really cool way was to line a muffin tin with squares of filo pastry and then fill with the mixture. Then we took another sheet and cut into 1cm strips and crumpled them on top of the “muffins”
Baklava – lots of recipes for Baklava too. My point of difference was to add rose water to the honey and sugar syrup. I love the flavour of rose water.
We also collectively made up a meze platter, each providing an ingredient either from the deli section or something really simple (like fried Halloumi). I did Falafel out of a box. The objective was to show that you can put on a really good spread with minimal work. The only really “homemade” item was the spanakopita.
Gazpacho, again using stock from
Easy Prep Vegetable Stock
Spanish Potato Tortilla (Tortilla Espańola)
Roast Ratatouille Salad – but not done as a salad. See my review.
French Style Roasted Perch With Fennel, Tomatoes and Wine
That was six weeks of classes. The feedback from the students was mixed. Most of them were confident cooks so there wasn’t much I could teach them. Some really enjoyed it and got into the spirit of mixing with the other students, having a glass of wine and enjoying the food. Others felt that they should have got more for their money ($50 for 12 hours, they provided their ingredients). Most of them didn’t like the week we did Minestrone soup. I still think it was a successful lesson. It may have been basic stuff for most of them but I was still hearing comments like, “I didn’t realise you could make soup so quickly,” etc. Also we made bread that week too. I suppose if I were to do it again I would probably cut out that one – but I still think you have to learn to make good soup to be a good cook!
Italian cooking
The first week we did my Minstrone soup and Foccacia bread menu from the Mediterranean class. This class seemed to like it!
Flat Bread Pizza A very un-Italian pizza but one you have to try, especially you guys in Australia and New Zealand. Have a look for Mountain Bread in health food stores.
Nonna's Tiramisu
Spring Risotto With Peas and Zucchini
Chicken and Mushroom Marsala
Spaghetti Carbonara
Italian Amaretti Biscuits (Cookies)
Only four weeks for this class and a smaller class too (6 as opposed to 11 in the other class). These guys were really into the wine and consequently seemed to enjoy the lessons more! The other difference with this class was that I asked them what they wanted to do. I took on the class at the eleventh hour so other that the first week when I did the Minestrone soup, I had nothing planned. I would recommend to anyone teaching community education classes to take that approach if they can. It was possible with such a small class and made a huge difference. The previous tutor of this course said that he has had feedback that students didn’t like the recipes. It’s a real bummer when you hear this
after the course
All in all I would say that it was an interesting experience. I think I’ll stick to teaching teenagers. I’m having a rest next term and then next year I’m getting a promotion so I don’t really have the time (nor do I need the money as much
)
I’ve posted this in case any of you feel inspired to tutor at your local adult education college. Anyone can do it. I’m not a food tech teacher or a chef. You don’t even have to be a teacher to able to tutor. Here is a lesson plan that I’ve trialled and in two hours you can make the recipes, sit down to eat and still have time to clean up. The meze night was the only one where we overran the time. Feel free to ask me any questions – and give your local college a call. And can someone do it in my area before they try to get me to do it again next term!!
