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Ingredients

No dish can work without amazing ingredients. Find out what we look for when sourcing, preparing and cooking our sustainable ingredients.

 

Five top tips for meal prep

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meal prep

Batch cooking, or meal prep, is the act of preparing a week’s worth of food in one session, ensuring that your lunches and dinners are looked after for the days ahead. It’s a fantastic way to ensure you’re eating well, saving money and most importantly, improving your cooking skills!

However, meal prep doesn’t mean having the same thing for five days straight. With a little forward planning and organisation, you can enjoy a wide variety of dishes without too much effort.

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Why eat organic?

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Cookery School’s founder, Rosalind, started buying organic ingredients more than thirty years ago because they were free of chemicals like steroids and antibiotics.  They clearly were better for everyone, but were harder to find and had to be sought out.  Now we take it for granted that we can buy most items in organic form.

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Ros Rants: The ethics of chocolate

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I am an utter chocoholic and love the stuff but I always have one huge proviso – it has to be 100% slave free. The chocolate that I devour and that we use at Cookery School is always ethical.

In our chocolate making class, taught by the wonderful Jon Hogan from Rococo, we start the day with a tasting of a range of different ethical chocolates. Our students are always shocked to learn that the chocolates that they eat all the time aren’t free of controversy and ought to be given an enormously wide berth.  

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Ingredients Ros Rants Sustainability

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Ros Rants: A sprinkle of salt

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Salt is magic for me. Of all the ingredients that can be used to enhance the flavour of food, salt is the most effective when correctly used. The emphasis being on correct! I loathe food that is over-salted. It kills the taste of any dish, so it’s essential to find the right balance.

There is a hysteria surrounding the use of salt.  It is not unfounded if one is a fast food or ready meal addict.

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The importance of sourcing sustainable fish

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Fishing continues to be one of the biggest issues facing the food industry. With over-fishing and dredging jeopardising fish stocks and sea bed ecology, it is more important than ever that we investigate where our fish is coming from and ensure the methods used are as sustainable as possible.

What does sustainable fish mean?

Sustainable fish is caught in ways that allow the long-term future and viability of species,

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The top three benefits of growing your own fruit and vegetables

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Nicky Roeber is the Online Horticultural Expert at Wyevale Garden Centres. Here, he shares the top three benefits of growing your own fruit and vegetables at home.

As we become more conscious of how our everyday choices and actions can affect the environment, many people are making the switch to growing their own fruit and vegetables. However, the benefits extend beyond just helping the planet: it can save you money and improve your health too.

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World Meat-Free Week: Helping the planet through your plate

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17th-23rd June is World Meat-Free Week, a movement that aims to promote eating more plant-based foods. With experts saying that by 2050, the developed world will need to reduce their meat consumption by 50%, it’s becoming more important than ever for individuals and families to celebrate the humble vegetable. Here at Cookery School, we’re leading from the front, with plenty of vegetarian and vegan classes,

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RECIPE: Vegetable Bolognese

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May 13-19 marks National Vegetarian Week so we’re celebrating with one of our favourite dinner recipes – Vegetable Bolognese. With more than five veggies per serve, it’s a great way to pack in your five-a-day in a delicious way.

It’s a real crowd pleaser – just make sure you make enough for leftovers!

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Ros Rants: Don’t Sweat the Onions

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Cookery School at Little Portland Street founder Rosalind Rathouse occasionally reads, hears or sees something that gets her attention and inspires her to have a say. We call this Ros’s Rants… 

 

Last week I was alerted to a tweet that stated the author felt deceived by the cooking community after he had read a 2012 article on Slate.com about how long it really takes to caramelise an onion (35-40 minutes) versus what a recipe typically says (5-8 minutes).

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