Cooking Lesson #2 Cottage Pie Pots
Well, I am no great cook myself. But I don't think I can be too bad as I have been cooking almost everyday for 2 - 3 years. Not nice also must force to swallow down. Like what hub has said, now your food has changed from inedible to nice to it can become your "招牌菜" - this dish was actually a simple brocolli, cauliflower and mushroom steamed with some seasonings. Hm anyway his low expectations made me very happy still. :) Anyway Yes, it is indeed very stressful in the beginning to have a family depending on you for their very survival.So I wanted to let Imm have more hands on training. When he learns it young, it will be easier for him to retain and also create some nice memories for us. For our next dish, it is the cottage pie pots! Actually this dish is very similar to a bolognese pasta, which has onion, mince beef, tomatos.
Why I chose this was I wanted Imm to try on certain skills. I did the cutting of onions and shredding of cheese first. Then I just prepared the correct amount of beef and tomatoes.
I let him try weighing out the butter so he knows how to do the scale reading.
I boiled the sweet potatoes before hand and let Imm mash it together with the butter.
Then he added pepper while I added the salt. Put aside.
Next was the frying part. I put in oil and he poured in the onions. I told him that we must let the onion soften and next, we put in the beef. After a while it was the tomatoes and some water. After it was boiling, we let the mixture simmer.
Just before hub came back, I separated out the beef mixture into 5 ramekins, top it up with the sweet potato and put cheddar cheese on top before putting it into the oven. Initially, I wanted to separate it with Imm but he was concentrating on his sand art. Well, never mind, let sleeping dogs lie. Sometimes when they are busy doing their stuff, I try not to disturb them so it is easier for me. :) Anyway I have also taught him most of what I intended.
So we made the big pot and 4 small pots. Hub and I finished it and it was actually very nice and filling. Sweet potatoes are a good and healthy source of protein. What was not so good was that Ko and Imm does not like strange looking stuff. Imm tried a bite at the end when I told him he could only have his dessert after trying. He can refuse food but he must try it. Hopefully, he will experiment more of the food he cooks in future. :)
Skills learnt:
1) Mashing potatoes for fingertraining
2) Understanding how a weighing scale works and seeing the measurement.
3) Understanding that heat softens food
4) Knowing how the food changes colour when it is cooked
Cooking Lesson #2 Accomplished! And we had a great meal! :)
