Cooking with children

Kids in the kitchen

For grownups, spending time in the kitchen might be a chore, but for children the kitchen is a fun and exciting place. Children love to cook and relish doing things like kneading and rolling out dough or cracking eggs and mixing batters. Cooking with your child is not just a great way of bonding – it’s also educational. Children can acquire and hone skills such as counting, measuring, weighing and understanding time and fractions – all without noticing.

Children are seldom taught much about cookery at school so it’s up to parents to encourage them to experiment with cooking at home. The school holidays offer the ideal opportunity.

Learning to prepare food teaches children to be self-sufficient and better prepared for an independent life. Getting children involved in the kitchen is also a great way to motivate fussy eaters. Children will eagerly tuck into something they have prepared themselves and take great pride in watching someone else enjoy their food.

Children as young as four will enjoy helping you make the recipes that follow.

Getting started

Youngsters will no doubt be excited at the prospect of getting creative in the kitchen, but before you get stuck in, there are a few things to consider. Here’s a quick checklist:

1. Read the recipe through with your child before you start so that you both know what you are doing.
2. Clear a workspace and assemble all the equipment and ingredients that you will need.
3. Depending on your child’s age, decide which parts of the recipe your child can safely manage. Older children are capable of taking cakes out of the oven wearing oven gloves but straining a pan full of boiling pasta is probably best done by an adult.
4. Wash your hands before handling food.
5. Carefully measure out what you will need and set the measured ingredients aside. Younger children will enjoy helping you do this while older children are capable of measuring the ingredients themselves.
6. It’s a good idea to clean up as you work. Put dirty dishes in the sink and wipe up any spills.

Playing it safe

Handling knives and sharp tools

Children will readily find out that cooking can be fun, but it’s important to make sure that they know about safety issues, too. Use your judgement to decide when your child is able to handle sharp knives safely. Sharp knives are actually much safer to handle than dull ones. Blunt knives are more likely to slip because you need to use more pressure to cut things. If you teach your child how to use a small sharp knife sensibly, he or she will be able to cut things more easily - and it’s far better to learn under adult supervision than independently.

Kitchen safety

Here are some essentials to teach your children:

1. Never hold ingredients in your hand when cutting.
2. Keep a good grip on the handle of a knife and cut with the blade pointing away from you. Keep your fingers well clear of the blade. It can help when cutting vegetables to spear the vegetable with a fork, hold the fork with one hand and cut with the other.
3. Walk, don’t run in the kitchen. Always move cautiously when holding sharp tools.
4. Wash sharp tools individually. Never put sharp knives or other sharp items in a washing-up bowl with other utensils, you might forget they are there and grab a blade or a sharp edge by mistake.
5. Never put your hand in a food processor while it is plugged in.

How to handle heat

Hot ovens, hobs, boiling water and steam all present possible dangers. Here are some guidelines on how to ensure that safety comes first:

1. Always use oven gloves when handling hot things.
2. Steam from a hot saucepan or kettle can burn, so take care when you lift the lid or when you pour.
3. If using an electric hob remember that it will remain hot for quite some time after you turn it off.
4. Don't get too close to the gas burner when you switch it on - often there is a burst of flames when it’s first lit.
5. Never leave a cooking spoon in a pan when something is cooking.
6. Take care when frying as hot fat can splatter.
7. Be careful of the heat when you open the door of the oven.
8. Don’t put hot saucepans onto a kitchen work surface without putting them on a heatproof mat first.
9. Remember to turn off the oven, cooker or grill when you have finished cooking.
10. Water and electricity do not mix. Never use wet hands to turn on a switch or pull out a plug. Always dry your hands carefully before touching anything electric.

Hygiene rules

It’s never too early to learn about proper hygiene rules in the kitchen. Here are some essentials to teach your child:

1. Always wash hands thoroughly before starting to cook.
2. Wash all fruits and vegetables.
3. Use separate chopping boards for fruit and vegetables.
4. Store cooked and raw food separately and always wash your hands after handling raw meat or fish.
5. Always check the sell-by dates on ingredients.

Basic skills

Cooking is a bit like reading and if you learn the basics first, the rest should fall into place. These are some of the most frequently used techniques, the best ones to aim to teach your child:

1. Peeling vegetables with a vegetable peeler.
2. Chopping onions leaving the root intact so that it doesn't fall apart.
3. Crushing garlic - crush it first and the skin will peel off easily.
4. Mashing potatoes with a potato masher.
5. Grating cheese.
6. Squeezing citrus fruit.
7. Cracking eggs by tapping the centre of the shell over the rim of a small bowl.
8. Using a sieve.
9. Whisking egg whites.
10. Using a hand held blender to make things like smoothies.
11. Rubbing in butter and flour for crumble.
12. Kneading dough.
13. Rolling out dough using a floured rolling pin and cutting out shapes using cookie cutters.
14. Greasing and lining cake tins.
15. How to tell if a cake is cooked by seeing if a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Fun in the kitchen

As well as safety matters, it’s important to instil a sense of fun, too. During the summer holidays, a fun activity for your child and a few friends might be to cook a meal for the grown-ups. You can help them to choose a menu together, get the ingredients organised and then have the children cook supper, lunch or tea themselves with a little adult supervision. Children will take pride in making a meal for their parents and friends and it will give them a good feeling of independence.

Choose the recipes beforehand with your children and get all the equipment and ingredients ready. Often children like to create a make-believe restaurant. It’s fun for them to write out menus and have you order your dishes from the menu and then dress up as waiters and serve you supper.

However, be warned - sadly their enthusiasm may wane when it comes to mundane jobs like the washing-up.

Cooking birthday party

A great idea for a birthday party is to hold a cooking party. You can make invitations out of coloured card in the shape of rolling pins or chef's hats.

You and your child can choose about six fun recipes for the guests to cook like Pizza Faces, Animal Cupcakes and Fruit Smoothies and you can measure the ingredients before the party starts so that everything is ready. It's best if the children can work in pairs - have the instructions for each of the recipes printed out on separate pieces of paper in easy steps for the children to follow. Before they attempt each recipe, read out the instructions and explain or demonstrate each step carefully to the children.

Once you have chosen the recipes and you know how many children are coming, make a list of all the utensils you will need such as baking trays, mixing bowls, chopping boards, etc. Borrow some from friends, neighbours, relatives or parents of the children coming to the party.

There will be quite a lot of clearing up between recipes so ask a few of the parents to help out. It's a good idea to have breaks in the cooking when the children can play party games in another room and you and your helpers can arrange the ingredients so that they are set up ready for the next recipe.

You can pack up any extra food in individual boxes so that the children can take it home to their parents, who are bound to be very impressed.

Child-friendly recipes

Try these recipes by Annabel Karmel:

• Sweet and sour chicken
• Perfect pasta
• Mice in jackets
• My favourite pancakes
• Chocolate fridge cake
• Easy peasy cupcakes