A few weeks ago, the President of Slow Food DC contacted me to see if I was interested in doing a cooking demonstration at a local elementary school in celebration of "Local Flavor Week." I was really excited about working with the kids, and accepted immediately. Ms. Sarah Bernardi, an art teacher at Bancroft Elementary contacted me and told me that the children would be picking produce to cook with themselves, and that she would confirm the mystery ingredient before the demo.
Last week I found out that I would be teaching 4th graders how to cook with exciting, delicious, kid-friendly KALE!!!!!!! The pressure began to mount, and I began having all of these visions of the kids hating me and the food. Left to my own druthers, I would start with a more exciting vegetable- anything but kale- which I still tend to associate with diets and punishment.
Last week I found out that I would be teaching 4th graders how to cook with exciting, delicious, kid-friendly KALE!!!!!!! The pressure began to mount, and I began having all of these visions of the kids hating me and the food. Left to my own druthers, I would start with a more exciting vegetable- anything but kale- which I still tend to associate with diets and punishment.I decided that if I wanted the kids to "buy in" to the kale recipe, I better come up with something unusual, and with an interesting story.
That's when I decided to do an Ethiopian Kale recipe which consists of adding steamed kale to onions, garlic, fresh ginger and chillies sauteed in oil, stir frying them, and then letting them simmer with bell peppers and stock until very tender. Ms. Bernardi enlisted the help of one of the mothers to bring in traditional Ethiopian Injera bread so that we could enjoy the dish in an authentic manner.
While the kale was simmering, I showed the kids a short powerpoint about the nutritional benefits of kale and a little info on the recipe and Ethiopia itself. As I passed around typical Ethiopian spices for them to smell, I was inundated with questions like: "What's your favorite/least favorite food?" "What's the hardest thing to cook?", and "Do you burn yourself a lot?" My favorite part of the day, however, was when I asked them "When do you think bread was first made in history?" I gave them hints by telling them that it was a long, long time ago....as in ancient times. They all rose their little hands and bobbed up and down with excitement. When I called on them they shouted out..."Was it in 1976?" "1979?"...................................
Check out this fellow blogger's Ethiopian recipes.
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