Great British Cooking Demonstration
On the 19th of June The University of Leeds organized a British cooking demonstration where many local and international students gathered in The Refectory; Leeds University’s main dining hall. Two local chefs from Leeds demonstrated the cooking process in a fun and engaging way.
We started by cooking Pasties, which is a traditional dish in The United Kingdom, it is made of pastry filled with your choice of filling. For the filling we cooked the vegetables and meat, after that we mashed everything together, we used this filling to make our own pasty with the help of the chefs, then we spread the pasty with egg yolk to give it a golden look once its baked. Each students made their own pasty, vegetarian options were available. If cooking a pasty for the first time was not exciting enough, the chefs decided to award the best pasty a prize.
While the pasty was baking we got to make scones, one of my favourite British desserts. The chefs showed us how to make scones using easy to find ingredients like baking powder, butter, sugar and flour. While we enjoyed tasting ready made scones, we learned a lot about the British history from our knowledgeable chefs and local students.
The last dish we made is called Eton Mess, named after Eton College, this dessert is served usually after cricket matches. The dish is made of strawberries, eggs, sugar, cream and icing sugar. The students had the chance to compete with the chef whisking the ingredients, while it might seem like an easy job, it actually needs a lot of power! It took few students to whisk a huge bowl of Eton Mess but the result was delicious.
By the time we finished tasting Eton Mess, the Pasty was ready but not yet to eat. The chefs chose three winners for the best pasty, winners got chocolate as a prize, after that we all enjoyed tasting our own pasty.
This event is part of a series of events and activities in the summer, organised by the university and can be found here http://students.leeds.ac.uk/outofterm. Including wellbeing classes, volunteering opportunities, trips to local attractions, and other social events.
If you did not attend the British Food Demonstrations do not worry, find the recipes for these amazing dishes below:
Cheese and onion pasty
200g potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 small onion, diced
200g cheese (or replace with vegan cheese)
Salt and pepper (for seasoning)
500g packet puff pastry (or use Filo pastry as vegan alternative)
Beaten egg for glazing (don’t use if vegan)
1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Boil the potatoes for 30 minutes until soft
3. Lightly fry the onions until soft
4. Mash the potato and then add the onions, cheese and seasoning and let the mixture cool
5. Roll out pastry and cut out circles around 15 – 20 cm in diameter
6. Divide the mixture between the circles and crimp the edges together
7. Brush with the beaten egg
8. Bake in oven for 20 mins or until golden brown
9. Serve hot or cold
Steak and Potato Pasty
1 large potato, peeled and diced
Half of 1 small onion, diced
225g steak, thinly sliced and cut in 1 cm pieces
1 carrot, diced
Salt and pepper (for seasoning)
500g packet shortcrust pastry
Beaten egg for glazing
1. Boil the potato until soft
2. Fry the onion, steak and carrot in a frying pan and then add the potato
3. Season the mixture and leave it to cool
4. Roll out pastry and cut out circles around 15 – 20 cm in diameter
5. Divide the mixture between the circles and crimp the edges together
6. Brush with the beaten egg
7. Bake in oven for 20 mins or until golden brown
8. Serve hot or cold
Scones
350g self-raising flour, and more for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
85g butter, cut into cubes
175ml milk
3 tbsp caster sugar
Sultanas
Egg to glaze
1. Heat oven to 220 degrees Celsius
2. Mix self-raising flour and baking powder together then add butter, rubbing together using your fingers until the mix looks like fine crumbs
3. Stir in caster sugar
4. Make a well in the dry mix, then add the milk and mix together into a dough
5. Dust the work surface, dough and your hands with some flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s smooth
6. Put into a round that’s around 4 cm deep and use a 5cm cutter sprinkled with flour to stamp out 4 scones
7. Put what’s left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four
8. Brush the tops with a beaten egg, then carefully place onto the hot baking tray
9. Bake for 10 minutes until risen and golden on the top
10. Cool and serve with butter, jam and clotted cream
Eton Mess
2 large egg whites and 120g caster sugar, OR buy pre-made meringues
500g strawberries, roughly chopped
450ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
1. Heat oven to 120 degrees Celsius and line a large baking tray with baking paper
2. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until they become stiff peaks
3. Add the sugar slowly and whisk again into stiff peaks each time you add more sugar
4. Spoon dollops of the mixture onto the baking paper and cook on the bottom shelf of the oven for 1 hr – 1 hr 15 minutes until the meringues are completely hard and come off the paper easily
5. Leave to cool
Alternatively, you can buy pre-made meringues and miss out the steps above
6. Use a food processor to blitz 1/3 of the strawberries to make a strawberry sauce
7. In a large bowl whisk the cream with the icing sugar until it holds its shape
8. Roughly crush ¾ of the meringues and mix them with the chopped strawberries and stir, then swirl through the strawberry sauce
9. Dollop into bowls then crush the remaining meringues, sprinkling over the top
Enjoy your food!