Market Explorers: Cooking safely with children

How to explore safely in the kitchen We really hope that you will want to experiment with the ingredients you have discovered as a Market Explorer.

Before you get stuck into the recipes, here are some tips and tricks to make sure you are safe.

exploring the kitchen

EXPLORING RECIPES

Kitchens are all organised differently.

Ask your grown up to give you a tour of yours so you become familiar with it.

Where is everything stored?

What foods live in the fridge?

What goes in the cupboard?

What stays on the counter?

Where does the rubbish go?

Check how many portions the recipe makes and how long the recipe takes to cook. Read the whole recipe through right to the end – do this with your grownup and decide where you will need help.

It is always a good idea to check what you are allowed to cook with. You might not be very popular if you have used up the last egg!

You’ll need a clean, clear space to put ingredients, recipes and tools out when you are getting creative. Kitchen counters might be a bit high as they are designed for grownups so go to the kitchen table or find a solid box to stand on to make yourself a bit taller (it will help when you wash up too).

Clean the surface before you start then work on a clean chopping board or work mat, especially when you are swapping from cooked to raw foods.

Allergies If you have food allergies or intolerances, check the recipe and any ingredient labels.

Try the recipes with your usual replacements and you should still be able to enjoy them.

kitchen Tools

A lot of kitchen tools will be designed for bigger hands and be awkward for you to grip and use safely, so you might need to experiment a bit to find things that work for you.

Level 1

measuring Spoons When a recipe asks

SCISSORS are really useful for chopping

If you see a recipe that wants a tablespoon measure but you don’t have one, 3 level teaspoons will work.

Find a pair of small, sharp scissors – like the ones for cutting paper or card. Wash them well in hot soapy water.

Keep these as kitchen scissors (so they don’t get covered in glue!)

for a teaspoon or tablespoon of something, they usually mean a level amount. This means the ingredient fills the spoon perfectly and is flat at the top; a ‘heaped spoon’ means pile on as much as you can!

things like herbs, slicing spring onions or cutting up sliced meat or bacon.

rolling pins

Level 2

are very useful in kitchens. You can roll out things like pastry, but also use them to flatten meat or turn biscuits into crumbs. Just put the biscuits in a bag first so the bits don’t go everywhere and give it a good bash.

You may find it easier to put the food in a mug first, to keep your fingers out of the way.

measuring jug

GraterS are sharp too. Put yours on

WEIGHING scales - electronic ones that

Tip: Some ingredients like cheese are easier to grate if they are at room temperature.

Hunt for a measuring jug with a millilitre scale up the side – either a 500ml or 1 litre size (remember, the bigger it is, the heavier it will be when full!).

have a ‘Tare function’ let you add more ingredients to the bowl on the scales by going back to zero.

Balance scales with separate weights are great too – you can see the ingredients moving the pan like see-saw.

a flat surface and grate carefully down the blades. Be careful not to let your fingers get too close. No one wants grated finger in their food!

Level 3

that have Usually the only recipes e for to be really accurate ar d bread. baked things like cakes an

OVENS, HOBS and PANS

Think of these as hot unless you are sure they’re not. Hot hurts.

Getting hot trays or pots out of the oven or off the hob can be tricky so grab your grown up for this until you can do it on your own.

For most cooking you won’t need to preheat the oven – but you will for things that rise like Yorkshire pudding and muffins as they need the heat straight away.

ur oven Always make sure that yo n travel gloves are dry - heat ca burn you. through wet gloves and

SHARP KNIVES

need to be really sharp – in fact you can hurt yourself more with blunt knives.

There are a couple of special ways of holding food to help keep your fingers safe. Ask a grown up to help you practice the Claw and the Bridge using a table knife and soft food like a banana, making sure your fingers are in the right place, before you try cutting with a sharp knife.

Hard foods that roll around like raw carrots, onions and potatoes are probably the trickiest to master so get lots of experience in before you try those.