Cooking - The RR Way...

Just a few hours ago, I have just completed a cooking lesson with the RR boys and girls - Adventure & Discovery Rangers group. Yunno, it is not easy trying to teach these children something worthwhile in the lives week in and week out. BTW, each week, I try my level best to teach the children some basic survival tips in life together with some Bible lessons. It is important to equip the body, mind and soul - physically, mentally and socially. So, in order not to get my children to cascade into boredom, I decided to teach them some cooking tip and preparation of simple meals even when their parents are not around. I decided to teach the children on eating raw vegetables with a slight twist, toasted food and even a simple chicken dish. There was nothing fried today; meaning happy & balanced meal, I hope. Initially, I wanted to teach the children on how to cook a rabbit and some quail stew, however, as I couldn't get my hands on these items, I decided to go green where possible and prepare for a hearty meal instead. So, I went shopping yesterday afternoon with SLing at Tesco and get my all stuff ready for today's event. It was fun getting all the things ready when at that time, I don't have a clue to what I want to do with the children. Anyway, I just trusted myself and pray that I would come up with a good set of recipes to do. After all the shopping and raking the brains to know what to do, I decided to teach the children my childhood favourite dish and also, improvised on some of the recipes for toasting and coming up with salad opener.
I decided to teach them to prepare a mixed salad with apple cider tang, roasted potato with fresh rosemary, garlic and olive oil while the last dish is the Chinese classic, chicken with mushroom and oyster sauce. To get everyone on the right footing, I took the younger Discovery Rangers and made them dice and cut raw carrots, celery sticks and tomatoes. I demonstrated to them on how to do it once and then I got each and every one of them to do it. It was fun seeing the younger ones handling the vegetables and dicing up the vegetables. Yes! They cleaned their hands before doing any cutting and dicing. I explained to them cleanliness in our work station, attitude and our food is our priority. Then I get my own AR boys and girls to peel potatoes, chopped up some garlic and some shallots. Then I got another group of AR boys to prepare the chicken, chopped up some mushrooms and get the stove running. It was like running a small Gordon Ramsey kitchen in the mid-blistering hot sun at the Atrium area. I was sweating but the children were gleefully chopping away.
When the children are done cutting up and dicing the vegetables, I taught them to do the dressing. It was one tea spoon of apple cider, two tea spoon of sugar, a pinch of salt , some water, sprinkled of black pepper. These were added to the chopped and diced vegetables and viola! the first dish is ready! Then it's to the roasted potato whereby the potato were either halved or whole, pricked and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then, a mixture of garlic and bruised Rosemary herbs [ to bring out the great flavour and aroma ] entwined with olive oil were spread on the potatoes wrapped in tin foil. Then it is off to the simple oven toaster which I had brought from home. 22 minutes later, the dish is ready and the smell is really good.
For the third dish , I got the boys and girls to heat up the large Vision pot with some olive oil, saute some garlic & onions and waited for the rise of the sweet aroma. After getting some fragrant from the garlic and onions, the cut chicken pieces went in next. This was followed by the various combination of dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, oyster sauce and half cup of water. It was then left to simmer for a few minutes before the button mushroom & other mushroom were put into the terribly nice looking dish. Soon, a sprinkle of pepper here and there, a dash of salt here and there, soon, the dish was ready. We then got all the children to come out to share a little sampling of our children's culinary skills. It was fun seeing the children munching down the food especially the salad dish [ BTW, they picked up eating the celery and tomato! ] and the mushroom chicken. It was fun seeing the children enjoying the meal. The laughter and the smiles says it all, actually. The amazing part of the entire experience was that it was the children who did the cooking. Me? I was just supervising them on how to do it. I am really proud that the children did a great job in getting the food ready. I guess, it has always been my hope that I could help the children cook a meal for themselves and for their family. In that way, they would be more independent , able to take care of themselves in absence of their parents and even cook a meal for themselves in a healthy manner. In a small way, I have shown these children that cooking is fun, good and nutricious too. So, the next time you are in the kitchen, don't be surprise if you see your own children preparing a meal for you. They may not be Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey, David Aggie, Lynn Crawford or even Daniel Boulud but hey, they can cook! That , to me, is sheer pure joy to my heart!

Yunno what ? I am already blessed seeing the children taking part and wanting to learn to cook. One thing is for sure, these children have bottomless pit in their stomach. They really can eat,man!

I am just glad that they have learnt something new today. I have been blessed by their lives!