FOOD PREPARATION & COOKING

Learn how to prepare and cook food.

Understand the principles for selecting, cleaning, cutting, preserving, flavouring, mixing, cooking ....and everything else involved in preparing food for consumption.

Become a better cook at home, socially, or for work

This course complements studies in Food and Beverage Management, Event Management and Self Sufficiency -it all depends upon why you need to learn food preparation. Some may wish to become more self sufficient, others may wish to work in a restaurant, catering services, culinary supplies (eg. a kitchen shop) or hospitality services.

Cooking and Food Preparation Course

A lot of food is wasted (commonly one third or more); and even more food is badly prepared or cooked. Whether you are preparing food as a business; or simply for your own needs; this course can help you in two ways:

To make eating a better experience
To reduce waste and save money

Lesson Structure

There are 9 lessons in this course:

Introduction
- Why eat Fruit & Veg; How much a person should eat; How poor preparation can damage nutritional value
- How to choose fruit and vegetables when shopping
- Basics of preparation- peeling slicing etc
- Cooking techniques
- Nutritional information relating to food group
Cereals & Starches; Bread, cereals and potatoes
- Preparation- including how to make fresh pasta
- Why eat cereals & starche; How much a person should eat; How poor preparation can damage nutritional value
- How to prepare potatoes- different types of potato dishes- mashed, boiled, daulphinoise etc
- Cooking pasta- different recipes
- Cooking Rice, cous cous etc.
- Nutritional information relating to food group
Meat Fish and Alternatives
- How much a person should eat
- How poor preparation can damage nutritional value
- Selecting the perfect cut of meat/ basic butchery, fish mongery
- How to prepare and cook it, which sauces compliment it.
- Eggs- cooking different types
- Cooking with pulses
- Nutritional information relating to food group
Milk and dairy
- How much a person should eat
- How poor preparation can damage nutritional value
- Cheese making basics
- Cheese types and recipes
- Basic recipes e.g. Macaroni cheese
- Dairy free cooking
- Yoghurt
- How to make it, use in sauces
- Dairy free cooking
- Nutritional information relating to food group
Fats and Sugars
- How much a person should eat
- How poor preparation can damage nutritional value
- How to make perfect puddings
- Types of fat
- How to adapt recipes to reduce sugar and fat- catering for low fat and low sugar dietary requirements
- Nutritional information relating to food group
Flavouring Food
- More on complimenting foods- sauces- cream, wine, butter, vinaigrette etc
- Stocks
- Use of herbs/ seasoning
Menu planning on a Small Scale
- Designing menus- complimenting foods
- Recipes simple to advanced- Seasonal foods
- Planning a dinner party- case study
Menu Planning on a Large Scale
- Planning Meals/Catering for parties and events; outdoor, indoor etc
- Restaurant Menus/Catering

How to Prepare Fruit and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables may be served raw or cooked. Either way careful handling / cooking is vital to minimise the destruction of nutrients and maximise taste. Preparing vegetables correctly also helps to minimise waste. This is essential both in helping keep to a family shopping budget and also to maximise profits in business.

Washing
Wash fruits and vegetables well, if necessary using a vegetable brush to remove dirt. Even fruits and vegetables with skins should be washed in order to remove any bacteria, pesticides or insects. Fruits and vegetables should be washed under running water rather than soaked in a bowl. This is due to the fact that soaking fruit can dissolve water soluble nutrients such as vitamin C.

Peeling and trimming
Peeling and trimming is an important step in the preparation of some vegetables such as carrots and potatoes and fruits such as cooking apples. The basic peeling process can be divided into four steps:

1. In order to peel a vegetable begin by washing the vegetable thoroughly and remove and blemishes and fine roots.

2. Once washed, select the correct peeler. A swivel peeler is useful for root vegetables with delicate skins, such as carrots, while a peeler with a fixed blade tends to work best on vegetables with tougher, thicker skins, such as potatoes.

3. With your peeler selected begin by slicing off the top and the bottom of the vegetable holding the fruit or vegetable in your non dominant hand. Then slide the peeler away from you and down the vegetable to remove the skin.

4. Once peeled, peelings can be added to boiling water to make a cooking stock, the vegetables themselves can be added to salted water to prevent them becoming brown.

Slicing fruit and vegetables
The two main keys to cooking great vegetables are to maintain freshness and constant size. Preferably fresh vegetables should be used within a couple of days of purchase to maintain the best flavour. For vegetables to cook evenly, they should be sliced so that all pieces are roughly the same size this allows all vegetables to finish cooking at the same time.
By learning the right techniques, in time you will learn how to slice any fruit/ vegetable into any size or shape. When slicing aim to make cuts at set intervals, holding the knife in your dominant hand and the fruit/ vegetable in the other. Avoid cutting too fast at first you will get quicker. There are several different ways to cut/ slice fruit and vegetables e.g. they may be chopped, sliced, cubed or sliced into juliennes (thin strips)
Julienning (thinly slicing)
In this technique peel vegetable and trim off the ends. Then cut thin slices of vegetable 2-4 mm thick, cut the slices to form 3-4 cm length.
Finely dicing
Cut vegetables into 2mm slices which are then cut into 2mm strips, these strips should then be cut into squares that are approximately 2mm by 2mm

Chopping
Here fruits and vegetables are chopped into small pieces. Onions are a common vegetable to chop and the technique for chopping onions is shown below:
Chopping an onion
Step 1: cut the vegetable in half- when chopping an onion you also need to peel back the surrounding papery skin and cut of the top of the onion
Step 2: Place the two halves cut-side down onto a chopping board and slice the vegetable lengthwise in parallel cuts.
Step 3: now make several horizontal cuts parallel to the chopping board. The more cuts you make the more finely chopped the onion will become
Step 4: Turn the onion 90 degrees and make several cuts across the onion again how many slices you make will depend on how finely diced you wish your onions to become.

Cooking fruits and vegetables
Choosing the best cooking method helps to ensure minimum destruction of nutrients. General guidance includes:
1. To use only a small amount of water.
2. To microwave in little or no water is required.
3. To use a lid to cover saucepans/ woks etc in order to reduce the cooking time.
4. To keep any cooking water to add to soups and gravies to add nutrients.
5. Not to overcook fruits and vegetables. Try to only cook vegetables to until they are tender but still crisp, exact timings will depend on how the fruits and vegetables are prepared e.g. whether they are cooked whole, sliced, or diced.

Two keys to cooking great vegetables are to maintain freshness and constant size.

Preferably fresh vegetables should be used within a couple of days of purchase to maintain the best flavour. For vegetables to cook evenly, they should be sliced so that all pieces are roughly the same size this allows all vegetables to finish cooking at the same time.