Cold and Flu-busting foods

Winter is here and there are colds and 'flu viruses going around.
Cooking Club have been learning what foods they can eat and drink to boost their immune systems. We have been using these ingredients in all our menus recently:
Garlic, lemon, Ginger, turmeric, Thyme, Onion and Honey. Also, a good variety of different coloured fruits and vegetables will ensure you get a balanced combination of vitamins and minerals.

Each session, we make a simple hot drink: an infusion of fresh ginger root, lemon juice, honey. to this you can add fresh herbs such as sage for throat infections, thyme for coughs or turmeric, cinnamon and chilli (just a little) to warm up and stimulate circulation and bring down infections.
Sage, ginger, lemon and honey tea

Our traditional Spanish Tortilla, courtesy of Pilar, served with ratatouille

Spiced Barley Broth

Caramelised Onion Tart with garlic and lemon carrots, roast vegetables and steamed brussel sprouts with fresh tomato gravy

Greek Salad

Carrot Hummus and Garlicy Yoghurt

Tomato salad with fresh Basil leaves

Spinach and Ricotta Burgers

Some of the group sampling Rosemary Schragers' Tomato and Fennel Soup

Cooking Club in The Guardian!

A great start to the new year saw CoolTan Arts Cooking Club (yes, US!) featured in The Guardian as part of their Xmas appeal 2014/2015. We even had one of our Xmas creations printed: Our Hibiscus and Pomegranate Punch.......
Cooking Club's patron, T.V chef Rosemary Schrager kindly shared her own Carrot and Fennel Soup recipe which is included in CoolTan Arts' Food For Mood book. 
Here is the link.....

http://www.theguardian.com/society/christmas-charity-appeal-2014-blog/2015/jan/02/-sp-rosemary-shrager-cooking-mental-health

Soul Food Sessions for Black History Month....open to members of the public!

Cooking Club is hosting 4 sessions as part of Black History Month. Tuesdays 7th and 14th October 10.30-2pm and Thursdays 2nd and 9th October 10.30-2pm.
We will be focusing on the cuisine of Africa and The Carribean. This is a very varied palate! The flavours are warm and smouldering,  with cinamon, chilli, ginger and cloves.
Our first session was looking at of West African dishes: Ghanian Jollof Rice (our vegetarian version), roasted sweet potato and plantain chips and a beautiful ginger,lemon and mint punch from Mali.
We learned that Sweet Potatoes are brimming with health benefits. Apart from being ideal for diabetics they contain Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin B6, Iron, Magnesium, Potassium, Beta-carotene. All these improve our immune system, eyesight, nerve function, bone density, healthy heart, skin and teeth, energy levels, resistance to stress and Wintertime low moods (SAD).

Our next session on October 7th will feature food from Maurtius, an island between Africa and India which has absorbed cultural influences from it's surrounding neighbours as well as it's colonists, particularly French "Creole" cooking and it's Chinese immigrants.

Lovely Louise and learning to make Sushi

For the whole of September, we were lucky enough to have a guest volunteer: Louise.  She was visiting London from Belgium to improve her English. She lead workshops on how to make vegetarian Sushi and California Rolls. Everyone had a go, made beautiful sushi and enjoyed eating it for lunch. Some members had never tasted it before. 
To accompany it : Miso soup with  mungbean noodles and shitake mushrooms, Tempura fried vegetables and left over veg were converted into a colourful salad with a ginger dressing.
We were all sad to say goodbye to lovely Louise, as she has now gone back to her University course. Cooking Club wish you the best and come back to see us one day!

We have been given  harvest gifts from CoolTan Arts' Allotment - Growers:  This week fresh tomatoes and plums. 
We have made a Tomato and Avocado salad and a Plum crumble. 
Thank you, Gardeners and you must come to lunch! 

CoolTan Arts Cooking Club Recipe at Baldwins Health Food Centre

We are very proud to see that G.Baldwin & Co on the Walworth Rd. are featuring Cooking Club's Mood-Enhancing Ice-lolly recipe on their blackboard behind the till in their newly refurbished shop. Staff say that many customers are photographing it with a desire to make them at home.

Green Summer celebration!

We have discovered that we can cool down and boost our nutritional intake while keeping calories low by eating lots of fresh greens. To make salads and tarts and soups taste more interesting and varied, we have been raiding our windowsill herb garden to add a variety of green leaves into our salads and pestos: coriander, mint, dill, parsley, basil and alfalfa have been thrown liberally into the mix.  We made a pesto with spinach and basil leaves and the rind of a lemon:

Pesto

Ingredients

A handful each of basil leaves, spinach, flat parsley

4 cloves of garlic

5 Tablespoons olive oil

Juice of 2 lemons

1 Tablespoon grated parmesan

Pinch of salt and pepper

Pine nuts

All ingredients go into an electric mouli and are blended until a lovely green paste.

This delicious Pesto was added to boiled Pasta spirals and fresh, chopped spinach leaves.

Heat until warm, or serve cold.