Food Preparation and Nutrition

June 7, 2023

NEA1 Food Investigations

Hello – message from Jenny Ridgwell – For Food Teachers: my NEA1 Food Investigations 10 Tasks is available again in September 2023 as a PDF download for £10 – this includes the tasks from the posts below and more. If you’re interested in getting a copy of this as a PDF, please email me directly at jennyridgwell75@gmail.com

Sauces,

Useful stuff on gelatinisation

Chemical Raising Agents,

Ideas and facts on raising baked goods

Bread,

Ideas on gluten and flours to use

Pasta,

Gluten and pasta

Sponge Cakes,

Sugar in cakes and more

Eggs and egg white foams

Evaluate foams for meringues

NEA 1 Food Investigations – 10 Tasks

For Food Teachers: my NEA1 Food Investigations 10 Tasks is available again in September 2023 as download for £10 – see a few example pages below. If you’re interested in getting a copy of this as a PDF, please email me directly at jennyridgwell75@gmail.com

March 30, 2023

YouTube videos for Nutrition Program

These videos cover a range of topics on how to use the Nutrition Program – from the basics to some of the more advanced features.

How to put a recipe into the Nutrition Program

A start on how to use the Nutrition Program to create a recipe.

How to make a recipe healthier with Nutrition Program

Now you have put a recipe into the Program try and make it healthier.

Nutrition Program and Sensory Analysis

How to carry out evaluation of a dish you have tasted.

How to find the portion size

Video shows how to work out if the portion size is OK

Using the Star Profile for Food Investigation NEA 1

Shows how to draw a star profile when you have carried out tests.

Using a Star Profile for NEA 2 for a recipe – Chickpea Curry

Step by step on how to evaluate your recipe for GCSE

Costing a recipe using the Nutrition Program

Work out the cost of the ingredients and total recipe

January 9, 2020

Vegan bean sausage rolls

These vegan pastry rolls are filled with a spicy bean mixture which needs careful flavouring with onion, smoked paprika, cumin and celery salt.
You can use ready made shortcrust pastry or make your own. Ready made pastry needs to be taken out of the fridge for 30 minutes before using.

Makes 12

Ingredients

1 can butter beans (400g) drained of juice 250g drained weight

1 small onion finely chopped, 50g, 

1 level tsp smoked paprika

1 level tsp ground cumin

Pinch of celery salt

1 level tbs tomato ketchup

Chopped spring onion, chives or parsley

Sesame seeds

Shortcrust pastry – either ready made or use Vegan shortcrust pastry recipe 300g

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Line 2 baking trays with non stick baking paper.
  2. Put the drained butter beans in a bowl and mash with a fork or bash with the end of a rolling pin. Keep the bean liquid to use to glaze the pastry.
  3. Stir in the finely chopped onion, paprika, cumin, celery salt and tomato ketchup. Add chives, spring onion and/or parsley. Taste the mixture and see if it needs more flavour.
  4. Roll out the pastry into an oblong about 25x35cm and cut in half lengthways.
  5. Divide the bean mixture into 2 equal portions and roll into 2 long sausages along the length of the pastry. 
  6. Brush the long side of the pastry with some of the bean liquid and roll up to make a cylinder. Press to seal and put the sealed pastry edge underneath on the baking tray.
  7. Brush the top of the pastry with bean liquid and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  8. Cut each roll into 6 equal rolls and cut the top with scissors to make a peak.
  9. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
  10. Serve warm or cold.

Research

Find out how companies are making Vegan sausage rolls

Greggs Vegan sausage roll is made with flaky pastry and a vegan Quorn filling.

Greggs best selling Vegan sausage roll

https://www.greggs.co.uk/bakes/vegan-sausage-roll

Marks and Spencers has a Plant Kitchen with a range of products made from plants. Their No Pork Sausage roll has vegan flaky pastry and a filling made from soya protein and spices

Marks and Spencers Plant kitchen

Quorn has vegan pieces that can be used as a vegan protein for dishes.

Mycoprotein (89%), Potato Protein, Firming Agents: Calcium Chloride, Calcium Acetate; Natural Flavouring, Wheat Gluten, Pea Fibre, Stabilisers: Carrageenan, Sodium Alginate.
December 16, 2019

Vegan lasagne with aubergine

Made from aubergine and soya mince with oat milk for the bechamel sauce

In this Vegan lasagne I use vegan ingredients to replace meat lasagne recipe  

  • Soya mince replaces meat mince
  • Plant based drinks like oat, soya, almond replace milk
  • Vegan spread replaces butter

Things to watch for

Make sure the lasagne sheets are not made from egg otherwise they are not vegan. There are plenty of plant based drinks to replace milk – this recipe uses unsweetened soya drink. The meat free sauce needs careful flavouring – herbs, tomatoes, vegetarian seasoning, salt and pepper. Taste after it has cooked.

Use Nutrition Program to look at nutrition

Serves 4
The recipe is made for 4 as it is hard to scale it down to serve 2.

Ingredients

180g meat free mince (Sainsburys) made from soya
100ml water
1 tbs vegetable oil
Small aubergine 150g cut into slices then cubes
1 small onion 90g, peeled and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ of a 400g can of tomatoes (200g + juice)
1 tbs tomato ketchup
Large pinch mixed, dried herbs
Vegan stock cube or 1 tsp vegan bouillon powder
Salt and pepper
Vegan white sauce
2 tbs vegetable oil
40g plain flour
400ml plant based drink – soya, oat, almond
Salt, pepper, grated nutmeg

4-6 sheets dried egg free lasagne 60 – 90g

Method

  1. Mix the meat free mince with water and stir so it absorbs and swells.
  2. Gently fry the aubergine cubes, onion and garlic in oil in a large frying pan for 3-4 minutes until they soften, stirring all the time.
  3. Add the softened mince and stir in the tomatoes, tomato ketchup and a little water to make the sauce.
  4. Season with vegan bouillon and mixed herbs. Cook gently for 5 minutes.
  5. Make the white sauce. Heat the oil and flour in a pan for a minute to mix together then gently whisk in the plant-based drink until the sauce thickens.
  6. Season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.
  7. The lasagne is ready to assemble. Choose a dish that will serve 4.
  8. Put half the meat free mixture in the base of the dish, then layer on half of the sheets of lasagne. 
  9. Spread in the remaining meat free mixture and top with the lasagne sheets.
  10. Pour over the white sauce so that it covers the lasagne sheets.
  11. To serve, set the oven to 150°C and bake 20 minute to thoroughly heat through. It should reach 75°C. Test with a food probe.
October 23, 2019

Evaluate a food product for NEA 2

Samosas and cucumber chutney

I’ve made samosas with cucumber chutney – an example from OCR.

Samosa and cucumber chutney evaluation Comments
Good points about food productNice shapes, well cooked, tasty filling
Improvements neededSome samosas split open and baking was uneven.
Sensory words – descriptorsEasy to hold, spicy, golden, tasty and crisp pastry.

Fill in a chart like the one above.

Then decide on the Sensory Tasting words to use – Descriptors

I’ve chosen – easy to hold, spicy, golden, tasty and crisp pastry.

For the best samosa result that I want, I give each descriptor a mark out of 5.

easy to hold5/5
spicy4/5
golden4/5
tasty5/5
crisp pastry5/5

Open the Star Profile in the Nutrition Program to evaluate your results.

Put these marks in the Rating column.

Get 2 or 3 people to taste your samosas and give a mark for each descriptor. Put their name on +Add Taster – the first one is Jenny – that’s me!

My tasters are called Jenny, Ali and Mosha. Enter their marks.

Complete the Evaluations for each Descriptor. Think about the marks the tasters have given.

Export as a jpeg.

You can put this image into your work. The Evaluations on the left show your comments. My samosas need a little more baking and more flavour with some spices.

All done!

This video shows how to make a Star Profile.