It’s been a while since we had a cooking with kids post – I only teach my junior cooking club 2 out of 3 terms a year but we just started again this week! Yay!
In the past couple of years, the club has focused on baking, based on the amount of equipment (not much) and the space we have to work in (not ideal) but this year I decided I wanted to bring back the OG vibes of cooking club and focus on “real food” (not that baking isn’t but more a focus on meals as opposed to baked goods only).
For the first session, I wanted to make something that would keep all the little hands busy for the entire session, and I couldn’t think of a better recipe than ratatouille!
I chose the ratatouille tian recipe from In the French Kitchen with Kids because I knew that even though we wouldn’t have the time to bake it in class, it is easily transported home in a disposable baking tin to be finished off at home.
First we worked with onions…
… and garlic…
Then we got to our veggies. We chatted about the importance of slicing these into even thicknesses for ease of stacking…
As you can see, it was *quite* the process!
And then we got assembling!
I’m sad you can’t see the smiles on the faces of the kids as they proudly showed me their creations!
Aren’t they beautiful?
All in all, a successful first session for the term. I’ve learned from the past couple of years working in a space that is most definitely NOT set up for cooking (even less than the science lab I worked in for over 10 years that felt “makeshift” at the time… oh for that space again!) and had to limit the amount of club members to make sure everyone (me and them) is set up for success. Simple dishes that focus on “must-know” techniques is my MO this term, so stay tuned to see what we make!
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