Tuna Paté

So the first thing I made in my food technology class was tuna paté. I practised it at home so I knew what I was doing at school. In the lesson it went really well and I didn't encounter any problems. Sorry, but I don't have a photo of this one.

Ingredients:

• 130g Tinned tuna/Smoked mackerel/Salmon/400g Tinned chickpeas
• 75g Cream cheese
• 1 tsp Lemon juice or rind
• 1 Clove garlic
• Salt and pepper

Vegetable batons

Choose 2 from:

• 2 Slices wholemeal bread for melba toast
• 1-2 Carrots
• 1 Pepper
• 1/2 Cucumber

As the method is really short I'm going to write it down here:

1. In a large bowl, mash fish or chickpeas with a fork.
2. Beat in the cream cheese and mix thoroughly.
3. Add the lemon, garlic and seasoning. 
4. Prepare the vegetable batons. Serve as a dip or use as a spread for sandwiches.
5. Make melba toast be cutting of the crusts from the bread. Roll flat using a rolling pin. Place under a grill and lightly brown on both sides or put it in the toaster.

My tips:

• If you are using chickpeas, make sure to blend them in a blender because they are too hard to just mash with a fork.
• Using lemon rind instead of juice will give a stronger taste.
• If toasting the bread for melba toast, be careful or it can easily get trapped in the toaster because it's so thin.

My review:

So it went really well when I made it at school. It wasn't a particularly hard as you don't have to use an oven or any heat. All you really do is mix simple ingredients in a bowl. But you do have to do it properly or it won't turn out right and won't taste very nice. Luckily, nothing went wrong and it was a very smooth make in school. The finished product tasted really good especially with the vegetable batons and the melba toast. It also looked really good even in a plastic box. As long as you put it in the fridge as soon as it's made it will keep long enough for you to eat it. Unfortunately, I kind of forgot about it so it didn't really get eaten. But, overall it was a really good make!

Tuna Pasta Bake

The finished product

I made this quite a while but never got around to putting a post up for it because of all the stuff that was going on. I wanted to advance my cooking skills a little bit more (trust me, I'm not very good) so I decided to go for something slightly different that my family doesn't really eat that much.

Ingredients:

• Pasta
• Tin of tuna
• Cheese
• Onion
• Tin of tomato
• Tomato puree
• Seasoning
• Herbs (optional)

My tips:

• Use about three toothpaste sized blobs when you add the tomato puree.
• Make sure you drain the tuna completely. You don't want any juice left in the tuna.

 

The sauce and pasta are cooking away!

My review:
I really loved cooking this as it wasn't super tricky yet not super easy. My mum did help me a bit because it was my first time making it and like my third time cooking a proper meal. It is also a good meal because they're quite simple ingredients that a lot of people might find in their house (except for the tuna maybe but you can make a chicken pasta bake). Making the sauce is the main part and it's pretty simple. I just found chopping the onion hard and putting it in the pan because I didn't want to get burnt when the oil sprayed up at me. The meal overall does take a long time because it's quite a long cooking time! The finished meal was absolutely delicious and I'm looking forward to cooking it again for my whole family. When I made it this time my dad wasn't at home.

Just about to pop in the oven but adding finishing touches.

Scrumptious Steak

A couple of days ago I decided I was going to some more cooking so I could become more confident with it. I then decided I was going to make tea for me and my mum. We had steak with a jacket potato and some peas and carrots (raw carrots).

You need:

• Steak
• Pepper (optional)
• Jacket potato (or try: rice, cous cous or chips)
• Vegetables

My tips

• Remember to turn the steak over or one side will burn
• Make sure the steak is under the heat of the grill (a mistake I made)
• Remember that the peas will only start cooking when the water they are in is boiling

My review
Me and mum both thought that the meal was really good for a first go. It tasted so nice! It wasn't as hard as I had expected it to be and it was really fun. My favourite part of making the meal was bashing the steak with a rolling pin to tenderise the meat. I was a little scared of putting stuff in the oven because of the fear I was going to touch a part of it and burn myself (it doesn't help that I'm a little clumsy sometimes). Making the food was overall quite boring because there was a lot of waiting around to do when stuff was cooking. Although there were a few mishaps, I ended up with a very nice plate of food that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Check out my next post to see what I had for pudding.

Pasta Arrabiatta

On Monday the 9th I made some Pasta Arrabiatta for my mum and dad.

What you will need:

• 1 onion
• 6 slices of bacon, cut into pieces
• Tin of tomatoes
• Chilli powder
• Pan
• Oil
• Wooden spoon

My tips

• Do the pasta when you're feeling hungry otherwise it might get cold.
• Cut everything then put it into the pan one by one.
• Only put a little amount of chilli powder because it is very hot

My review

I didn't actually eat it so I will tell you what it was like making it. It was physically impossible to chop the onion because it kept slipping and sliding about. Also the bacon was seriously greasy and cold. My parents said 9/10 because it was not spicy enough. They also thought it was delicious.