First Family Stage for BBC Good Food Show

At this year’s BBC Good Food Show Birmingham, the biggest event in every food lovers' calendar, there will be a fantastic new stage for families and kids. The Kids Kitchen Academy is the concept of Jethro Carr, the chef who founded Kitchen Academy, the country’s leading mobile cookery school aimed at encouraging children to like good food and cooking.

The Kids Kitchen Academy promises to be a really exciting addition to the show with Jethro and his team running cooking demo’s that are fast, easy and healthy. “We have learned how to make the demo’s as exciting as possible for the children taking part. This not only makes it a fun day for the children but also means that they are likely to remember what they have learned.” With speedy recipes being demoed everybody visiting should be able to get a slice of the action.

Kitchen Academy’s method of working at a grassroots level and managing to connect with their audience has brought about their remarkable success. Their energetic chefs have enthused thousands of children in primary and secondary schools nationwide into eating healthy food.

Kitchen Academy’s innovative and entertaining approach may be part of their secret formula. They will be performing gastronomic experiments on stage and will also be using pedal power to make their smoothies. The stage will also be the venue for the Organic Baby Food Awards ceremony.

Beetroot Humus

Beetroot Hummus

Hummus is perfect dipping food and making it yourself means that it will not contain all the preservatives and other additives that it would otherwise contain if bought in a supermarket. This humus has the weird twist of cooked beetroot. This recipe shows you how you can make it from scratch, but if in a hurry you can simple blend ready-made hummus with cooked beetroot.

· 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
· 2-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
· Juice of 1 lemon
· 1 cooked beetroot (boil for 1 hour)
· 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
· 3 table spoons of tahini (sesame seed pulp)
· Pitta bread to serve

Put the chickpeas into a pan with garlic and about 4 tablespoons of water. Cover and heat for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and cool a little.
Spoon the chickpeas, beetroot and garlic into a blender with any remaining cooking liquid and blend on a high speed. Next pour in the lemon juice, tahini, and oil and blend until it has formed a smooth paste. Poor into a bowl and leave at room temperate if eating straight away or refrigerate if saving for another day.

Falafal

Falafel

250g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight (or tinned cooked chick peas)
1 bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
4 tbsp tahini paste
3 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with salt
½ onion grated
1 egg
1½ tsp cumin seeds, roughly ground
1 tsp coriander seeds, roughly ground
50g chickpea flour or plain flour
750ml sunflower oil, for deep-frying
sea salt and black pepper
4 tablespoons of sesame seeds (optional)

Drain the soaked chickpeas. Place in a food processor and process until they form a fairly smooth paste.
Transfer to a bowl and add the tahini paste, garlic, salt and pepper, spices, herbs, flour, onion and egg.
Shape the chickpea mixture into 2.5cm (1inch) balls. Flatten slightly and roll in the sesame seeds if using them.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry in batches, cooking 1-2minutes on both sides. Transfer onto kitchen paper. Serve warm in flat bread with beetroot humus or baba ghanoush.

Funky Banana Flapjacks

Funky Flapjacks


These flapjacks are a real treat. They are stuffed with bananas that are good for keeping you going throughout the day. Bananas are also said to be good for preventing skin problems and asthma because they contain vitamin B6.

The main ingredient in flapjacks is oats; they contain B vitamins, which are good for remedying nerves and stress, so these flapjacks are perfect for when you are stressed out.

· 150g unsalted butter
· 40g honey
· 250g oats
· 25g sunflower seeds, chopped
· 25g pumpkin seeds, chopped
· 25g nuts, chopped
· 2 ripe bananas
· 30g dried fruit of your choice

1 Preheat the oven to 170°C and lightly grease a 20cm square tin.
2 Melt butter and honey in a pan, stir well, then add all of the other ingredients.
3 Spoon into a tin and level out using the back of a spoon or a pallet knife.
4 Bake for 20 minutes or until it turns a light golden brown.
5 Mark into squares and leave to cool for ten minutes. Turn out onto a board and divide into nine.

Jerk Pineapple Chicken

Jerk Pineapple Chicken

· 400g Chicken breast
· 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
· 2 tablespoons fresh coriander
· 1 tsp cinnamon
· 1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
· 1 tsp crushed black peppercorns
· 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
· 1 tablespoon crushed pimento seeds
· 2 cloves garlic
· 1 chilli, seeds removed
· 1 tsp grated ginger
· zest of 1 lime
· juice of 2 limes
· 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
· 1 tablespoon honey
· 1 small pineapple
· 3 tablespoons olive oil


1 Slice the chicken breast into strips and put into a mixing bowl.
2 Chop the thyme and coriander leaves.
3 Grind the coriander seeds, peppercorns, and pimento seeds.
4 Grate the nutmeg, ginger and lime zest.
5 Finely chop the garlic and chilli.
6 Now put all the ingredients in a blender apart from the chicken and blend into a smooth paste. Add to the chicken and leave to marinate.
7 Grill or fry the chicken slowly until cooked all the way through. It can be served in a wrap, bap, with rice or salad.

Fish Cakes

Tuna Fish Cakes
serves 4

Ingredients
600 g sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
300 g tuna in spring water, flaked
2 spring onions chopped
1 beaten egg
freshly ground black pepper
100 g polenta
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, to serve

Method
Cook the sweet potatoes in a pan of simmering water for 20 minutes. Drain well and mash.
Add the tuna, spring onions, and egg, season with freshly ground black pepper and mix well. Divide the mixture into 8 equal pieces and shape into patties.
Put the polenta on a plate and dip the fish cakes in it until coated on all sides.
Heat the oil and fry the fish cakes on each side until golden. Serve with lemon wedges and a tomato salad.

Juices and Smoothies

Juices and Smoothies

JUICES

Kiwi Karma
Freshly squeezed orange and fresh kiwi
(200ml freshly squeezed orange juice and 3 kiwi skinned and chopped, then blend)

Beach Breeze
Freshly squeezed orange, apple and mango
(Peel and chop 2 apples and 1 mango, blend, then squeeze in 200ml of orange juice)

Sunshine Splash
Apple, pineapple, ginger & lime
(Peel and chop 1 apple, use 4 slices of fresh or tinned pineapple, blend, grate in 1 tsp of ginger and squeeze in 1 lime)

Orange Juice
100% freshly squeezed orange juice



SMOOTHIES

Laid-back Mango
Fresh Mango, strawberry and organic banana
(Peel stone and chop 1 mango, add 125g strawberries, peel banana and break-up then add 200ml apple juice and blend)

Berry Blast
Frozen raspberries, blackberries and strawberries
(Use 225g of frozen berries, 1 carton of raspberry bio yogurt and 200ml milk, now blend)

Monkey Magic
A thick shake of banana madness
(1 large ripe banana peeled and broken into pieces, 1 150g carton of plain bio yogurt, 2 tsp honey, 60ml apple juice, put in a blender and blend)

The passion twister
Fresh passion fruit, mango and banana
(Peel and stone 1 mango, peel and break up 1 large ripe banana, slice open 2 passion fruit and spoon out the filling, place in blender with 200ml of apple juice and blend)

Strawberry Sunrise
1 Banana, a handful of strawberries, cover with apple juice and blend.

Success on the menu at food festival

By JANETHALLN

A FOOD and craft festival which brought record numbers of visitors to Wallington last year is set to be even bigger this weekend.

Shona Hendrick, events and promotions manager for the National Trust at Wallington said: “The festival is set to be even bigger this year with more producers attending. There will be cooking demonstrations throughout the day by Terry Miller, winner of ITV1 reality show Hell’sKitchen, and Nick Martin, Cumbrian local food champion. It is a great chance to taste and buy some of the most delicious foods produced in the region.” The free festival, which has been organised by the National Trust in association with Northumbria Larder and Made in Cumbria, aims to celebrate and promote local producers.

THIS year the festival will have a new feature for children and their families. The National Trust has teamed up with the Kitchen Academy to offer a series of free, hands-on children’s cooking workshops to demonstrate how to make delicious healthy food using local, seasonal produce.

Kitchen Academy’s head chef Jethro Carr said: “Our chefs will pass on their skills to parents and kids so that each meal is a unique tasting experience.”

The demonstrations and workshops will be accompanied by the Kitchen Academy’s smoothie bike, which are pedalled to blend fresh fruit smoothies. Each child or willing parent will pedal a delicious fruit smoothie and get a free workout in the process.

The event is free and visitors can enjoy the stunning Capability Brown-inspired gardens as well as woodland walks, adventure play area and orienteering course for all. Normal admission applies to the house.

For more information on the Wallington Food and Craft Festival, ring 01670 773600 or visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk