By Sidonie Maroon

Beginning in October, with Mindy Dwyer as my assistant, we taught four hands-on cooking classes with Blue Heron Middle School students. This was our first collaboration, with the school, to bring whole foods cooking skills to youth. Our goal was to introduce them to diverse ways around the world that people cook and eat legumes, grains and fresh vegetables.

Our lineup of classes included meals based on the cuisines of Mexico, Brazil, India and Ethiopia. We had an even mix of boys and girls, all interested in learning to cook. It’s important to find out what your students already know, and what they’re interested in knowing. This group wanted to up their game with knife skills, use of herbs and spices, and how to approach unfamiliar ingredients. We ended each class with a sitdown meal, where we continued our culinary conversations and practiced convivial gathering at the table.

Our Menus

In the Mexican class we learned to make refried pinto beans, homemade tortillas, pico de gallo, and cortadito (cabbage salad).

Brazil’s menu included: black beans in chili sauce, oranges with salt and pepper, a creamy yam stew and rice.

In our Indian class we learned about spices, how to grind our own masala mixes, make dal with millet dosas.

Our Ethiopian adventure included baking a sorghum and teff honey cake, making chicory and dandelion coffee, and learning to grind our own berbere spice mix. 

Feedback from the students

What they learned

Delicious and alternative ways to bake without added sugar.

Styles of food from around the world.

How to taste food and talk about it. We want to taste!

All about spices

How to put love into cooking

How to take time for cooking

How fun it is to cook together

The flow of the kitchen

Thinking ahead and planning, all the steps!

How to adapt to a small space

How to improvise

What they loved most

The food! They loved the food, all of it!

The openness to experiment and try new things

That everyone can afford and enjoy these dishes

Everyone’s willingness to taste and try new foods

Their ideas for next time

Cook Greek food

Cook Indonesian food

Classes that also include adults, mixed classes

Getting a cooking certificate from the Food Coop for a complete cooking program

Getting credit at school for their learning

Doing a “Teens and Beans”  and learning how to use bulk food, and cooking from scratch.

Learning how to feature of a bean and a grain and building recipes and menus from them

I’d love to continue and broaden this program. Kids and families are always welcome to join the regular Co-op cooking series that I teach twice a month. There’s nothing that warms my heart more than knowing that because of a good cooking class doors will open, and a young person will develop into a wonderful cook. I’m even more excited that they’ll seek out healthy foods! Exposing kids to the planet’s diverse cooking styles and peoples also gives me hope. Thank you Food Coop and Blue Heron Middle School for supporting this wonderful chance to engage with food.

Instant Pot Curried Kidney Beans

Rajma

Makes 2 quarts

2 hours, including Instant Pot time

If you are a chili fan, then this flavorful, hearty bean dish is for you. It all goes together easily , if you pre-plan and make the wet flavor paste and masala (spice mix) ahead of time. Serve with Indian style cornbread and yogurt. 

Ingredients

Whole dry spices

2 bay leaves, broken up

1 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

½ stick of cinnamon

5 whole cloves

5 cardamom pods, with hulls taken off

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (½ teaspoon for more heat)

1 dried ancho chili, top taken off, torn into pieces with seeds 

Powdered dry spices

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

3 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced (or 2 teaspoons dried)

2 teaspoons Celtic coarse sea salt

Wet flavor paste

8 cloves of garlic, chopped

2-inch piece of fresh ginger, with peel, chopped

Main Instant Pot Ingredients

4 tablespoons ghee or butter

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

2 cups red kidney beans, soaked for 8 hours or overnight and drained

4 cups water

Finishing Ingredients

1 cup parsley, chopped, packed into cup

14.5-ounce can of diced organic tomatoes

3 teaspoons Celtic coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar

Directions

Make the masala (spice mix and flavor paste) ahead

Masala

Toast the whole spices, on low, in a heavy-bottomed skillet, until fragrant. Grind them into a coarse powder and sift them through a sieve, discarding the fines. In a small bowl, combine the dry powdered spices to the freshly ground spices, including the salt and set aside.

Flavor Paste

In a small food processor, or by hand, blend the garlic and ginger together into a rough paste, and set aside.

Instant Pot Instructions

Set the Instant Pot on high saute. Add the ghee or butter, warming the pot. Add the chopped onions and saute for 10 minutes. Add the wet flavor paste and briefly saute for 1 minute. Add the beans, water, dry spices and salt. Put on the lid and set the Instant Pot to high pressure for 12 minutes with a natural release.

When the pot has released, open it and set to medium saute. Cook off the watery broth allowing the liquid to thicken to a stew consistency. Add the parsley, tomatoes, salt and vinegar. Taste and correct the flavors as needed.