Lesson video

Hello.

I'm Mr. Ballam, thanks for choosing this lesson.

This lesson is about making a bean and plantain stew.

Doesn't that sound amazing? Let's get started, shall we? So what are we going to learn? Well, in this lesson, you are going to use your food skills to make a bean and plantain stew.

It'll be absolutely delicious.

But before we get started, there are four key words which I want to go through with you.

The first one is plantain.

That's, remember, the name of the dish, and it's a fruit from the banana family but it's starchy with thicker skins.

The next word is Caribbean, and this is the region consisting of the Caribbean Sea and its islands.

The third is boiling, and this is to cook at boiling point, and it's bubbling rapidly.

And the last one is simmering, and this is to cook just under the boiling point, bubbling gently.

So let's get started with the first part of the lesson all around recipe origins.

Now the bean and plantain stew is a recipe from the Caribbean.

And modern Caribbean culture has been heavily influenced by the culture and traditions of Europe, along with African cultures too, and others that have come to the islands.

And over time, the people have formed a unique blend of cuisines, music, art, customs, and traditions in the region.

Now let's have a quick check for understanding, shall we? So true or false, over time, people from different countries have influenced the cuisine, music, customs, and traditions of the Caribbean? Well, yes, that's true, isn't it? And why is that? Well, modern Caribbean culture has been influenced by the culture and traditions of Europe, Africa, and others that have come to the islands.

If you got that right, well done.

Now, national editions of the Caribbean can include things like fungee and pepperpot.

Here's a picture.

The fungee is on the left hand side and the pepperpot is on the right hand side.

What is it? What do you think? Well, fungee is a type of bread made from corn mill, or sort of corn flour, or ground maize, and okra, which is a plant, a vegetable.

And the pepperpot is a stew.

How about this one? Picadillo with plantains? Here it is.

Doesn't that look delicious? And this is made with beef with chopped vegetables and spices, and often it has raisins, olives, and chilies too.

Hmm, that sounds really good.

How about a couple more? This one is called goat water, and this is of stew made with goat meat, onions, breadfruit, which is a type of plant, tomatoes, and fresh herbs.

I bet that's delicious.

I've never had that before, have you? And lastly, callaloo soup.

This looks lovely, doesn't it? And it's made with leafy vegetables, coconut milk, meat, yams, onions, bananas, green bananas, and dumplings.

Hmm, I'd love to try that.

But there are lots of different types of different dishes from the different Caribbean islands.

Now the ingredients in the bean and plantain stew include the plantain, which we've talked about.

And plantain grow and harvested in the same way as bananas.

You can see them here, don't they look amazing? And the plantains grow and then they're picked.

And then they're peeled and cooked for different dishes.

They look great, don't they? And just like John is saying here, "The plantain is in the banana family, but they have thicker skins and they are more starchy too." Other ingredients include red kidney beans.

Now did you know that beans are the seeds of a plant? Wow, I didn't know that.

Thanks Lucas.

And also we're going to have tomatoes.

Wow, Lucas, you're full of information.

"Did you know that tomatoes are a fruit, but we eat them as a vegetable?" Thanks Lucas.

Now in the Eatwell Guide, plantains are part of the potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, and other starchy carbohydrates food group.

If you look at the Eatwell Guide just on the screen here, it's the yellow group just over to the right.

And we should eat some starchy foods every day as part of a healthy, balanced diets.

And other starchy foods can include things like yam, cassava, noodles, bulgar wheat, and millet.

Okay, let's have a quick check, shall we? So which food group can planting to be found? A, B, C, D.

Yes, well done, it's B, isn't it? It's the potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, and other starchy carbohydrates food group.

Brilliant work.

Well done.

Other ingredients include onion, carrot, celery, and garlic.

Hmm, I bet they're all delicious in the stew.

Now, what part of a plant do you think these vegetables are from? Hmm, can you tell me? Let's start with onion, shall we? So what part of a plant is an onion from? Yes, it's the bulb, and it grows under the ground.

How about carrots? Yes, well done, it's the root of a plant.

Celery? It's the stem or the stalk.

And garlic? Yes, that's also a bulb similar to an onion.

Well done.

We're also going to be using chilli flakes.

Hmm, nice and spicy.

And the chilli flakes are made by drying chilies and crushing them into flakes.

And we're also going to be using dry thyme.

And the leaves from plant called thyme are picked and dried.

So we're going to be using chilli flakes and dried thyme.

We're also going to be using all purpose seasoning.

And all purpose seasoning includes a blend of herbs and spices.

It saves us having to buy all the individual spices and mixing them together.

We're also going to be using oil.

And oil is pressed from the seeds, nuts, or fruits of plants.

Also, we're going to have stock and we're going to use a stock cube because it's more convenient.

And stock cubes are made by cooking vegetables, herbs, and spices and drying them and pressing them into cubes.

We're also going to have black pepper as well.

Hmm, that's gonna give a lovely aromatic smell and taste to the food.

And pepper is made from the dried berries, which are a fruit from a tree.

Wow, we've learned so much, haven't we? About the different parts of a plant that are going to be in this bean and plantain stew.

Okay, so I've got a task for you now, and I want you to answer the questions from these pupils.

First of all, here's one from Laura.

"Plantains are like bananas.

So, are they one of our five a day?" Hmm, what do you think? Okay, Lucas, what's your question? "What parts of a plant are tomatoes, beans, carrots, celery, thyme, and pepper from?" Hmm, I think I know that one.

And lastly, Sofia, "What are some of the national dishes of the Caribbean?" Ooh, we looked at some of those earlier, didn't we? So good luck to you.

Pause the video and we'll come back very soon to see how you got on.

Good luck.

Okay, so how did you get on? I bet you did brilliantly, didn't you? So how about Laura's question? What would be your answer? Well, no, plantains are not part of our five a day.

They are a starchy food in the potatoes, bread, rice, pasta, and other starchy food group.

And we should have some starchy foods every day.

How about Lucas's question, what did you put? Well, tomatoes, remember they're a fruit, but we often eat them as a vegetable, don't we? Beans, would remember, they're the seeds of a plant.

And the carrots are the roots, and the celery is the stem or a stalk.

How about thyme? That's a leaf, do you remember? And we dry it.

And lastly, the pepper is fruit, they're berries.

Brilliant work.

You're doing really well so far.

And how about the last question from Sofia? Do you remember the dishes that we looked at? Well, you could have the fungee and pepperpots, or perhaps the picadillo with plantains, or how about goat water? Or perhaps their callaloo soup.

Some delicious food there from the Caribbean islands.

So now let's move on to the second part of the lesson, which is all about making and evaluating your bean and plantain stew.

Now similar to nutrition labels on packaged foods, recipes can be analysed to calculate how much energy nutrients they provide.

And this process is called nutritional analysis.

And we can calculate the amount per hundred grammes and per portion how much you might eat.

Now nutrition labels can help us make healthier choices.

So for example, the one on the screen here is called a front of pack labelling, sometimes known as traffic lights.

And it shows the key nutrients as red, amber, and green.

And when choosing foods, we should go for more greens and ambers and fewer reds.

So it's helping us make healthier choices.

And when conducting nutritional analysis, we can also create nutrition labels too.

Let's have a quick check.

Now, which of these sandwiches is the healthiest? Look carefully at the traffic light nutrition information.

That's right, it's A, isn't it? And why is that? Do you remember? Mostly greens, mostly ambers.

So that's a healthier choice.

Well done.

Now to conduct nutritional analysis, we can go to this website called Explore Food.

And when we come to the website, we click on go under calculator recipe and then add its name.

We then search and add each ingredient, and then we click view summary.

And then we click create a label and add a name, its title, and then we click create label.

Let's have a quick look to see how Explore Food works.

And this is how you use Explore Food.

So first of all, click go where it says calculate a recipe.

Then type in the name as you are just going to be looking for different foods.

Type in the word food as its name, then click start.

Then you can start to look for the food or the ingredients that you want to explore.

So for example, let's have a look at bread.

So we start to type in the word bread, and then the computer shows us all the different types of bread it covers.

So we're going to click bread rolls, white and soft.

So we click that and then we enter in the weight.

So we're going to add in 100 grammes followed by return.

And then here you can see that the energy appears next to it.

So for the bread rolls for 100 grammes, we have 1,078 kilojoules or 254 kilocalories.

We can then adding other foods as well.

So for example, if we type in the word egg, it then shows us all the different recipes or foods with egg in.

And we can then search through the list by scrolling down.

And then here we can see the different types of eggs that we could have.

So let's say we're having a chicken egg, just the yolk and it's raw, we click on that.

Then we type in 100 grammes.

And then it shows us the energy available in kilojoules or kilocalories.

So when we make our bean on plantain stew, we're going to use a number of different food skills.

And one really important one is measuring.

And we're going to be using weighing scales.

And when we use weighing scales, we need to make sure the scale is zero before we weigh anything so we get the right amount.

We're also going to be using a measuring jug.

And it's really important when you use a measuring jug it's on a flat surface, so you measure the right amount.

And we're also going to be using measuring spoons.

Make sure you use the right spoon.

Other the food skills is peeling, and we're gonna peeling the onion and the garlic by hand.

And if the plantain is ripe, you might be able to peel that by hand too.

And if the plantain isn't ripe, we can remove the plantain by doing the following: we can slice away the ends, we can then slice down the plantain only going through the skin, and then slice down again making a strip and then we just peel away the skin.

And we continue this until all the skin is removed.

And as Alex is saying, "Be careful with the knife." It's very sharp.

We're also going to be dicing, and we're going to make dicing the onion.

And to do this, first of all, we make slices with the onion leaving the roots, the fuzzy bits at the end intact, and we slice across the onion to dice.

We're also going to be dicing the carrot.

So first of all, we slice the carrot into strips, then we cut across the strips to dice.

Now let's see the claw grip in action, shall we? We've been using the claw grip a lot here with the onion and the carrots.

So the pupils making a claw with one hand to hold the food and steady it, and then with the other hand running a knife down and they're using their fingertips on the claw hand to guide the knife along safely as they go.

We're also going to be chopping and we're going to chop the garlic.

And chopping is about cutting food into rough pieces.

So not a dice or a slice, but just roughly.

We're also going to be slicing and we're going to slice the plantain and the celery.

And we're going to use the claw grip.

Do you remember, the one that we've just seen? Now, which of these shows dicing? Yes, well done, B.

That shows dicing, doesn't it? A is showing slicing and C is showing chopping.

Well done.

We're also going to be opening cans.

Now, depending on the different type of can, you might open it in different ways.

So for example, you might have a ring pool.

And here you just gently pull up the ring pool to remove the lid.

Or perhaps you have a can where you need a can opener and you have to put the can opener on the side and twist the lever and it opens the can.

But you need to make sure when you remove either of the lids, you remove it carefully 'cause the lid can be sharp.

And we're also going to be draining.

So once we've opened the red kidney beans, we're going to drain them in a colander over the sink.

And when we move around the room, we need to make sure the colander doesn't drip on the floor because the floor could get wet and somebody could slip and have an accident.

So it's really important.

We're also going to be using the hob, and we're going to be simmering and boiling.

Now, you might use a hob on a cooker, or perhaps in your classroom you might use a party pan or perhaps a portable hob.

But whatever you use, use it safely.

Now I wonder what Sofia and Izzy are going to talk about.

So Sofia's asking, "Are boiling and simmering the same?" Hmm, what do you think? "No," says Izzy, "let me show you." So boiling is to cook at the boiling point, and the bubbles are rapidly bubbling.

You can see them here on the screen.

And simmering is just below the boiling point and it's bubbling gently.

Ah, so that's the difference between boiling and simmering.

So true or false, when using the hob, boiling and simmering cooking methods are different? That's true.

And why is that? Well, do remember, boiling is at the boiling point, bubbling rapidly, and simmering is below the boiling point, bubbling gently.

Brilliant work so far.

I'm so proud of you.

You're doing really well.

And we're also going to be mixing, and we're going to be mixing or frying the onion, carrot, celery, chilli, and garlic together.

And we're going to mix in the plantain, the beans, tomatoes, the stock cube, the water, herbs, and spices.

Wow, there's a lot going on, isn't there? I bet it's gonna be really tasty.

And when we're mixing, we mustn't mix too quickly 'cause it might splash and it could cause burns.

So now I want you to make your bean and plantain stew, but before you cook, I want to make sure you are ready to cook.

So tie up any long hair, remove jumpers, wash hands, and wear an apron.

Also, get your ingredients and your equipment ready so you are ready to cook.

And then as you prepare and cook, I want you to be safe and hygienic.

Also, I want you to think about using your food skills accurately and precisely too.

So here are the ingredients that you need and here's the equipment, and here's the first part of the method, and here's the second part of the method.

So good luck to you.

I'm sure you can do absolutely fantastically and we'll come back very soon to see how you've got on.

Remember to pause the video.

Okay, so how did you get on? I bet you did well, didn't you? Does it smell good? Does it taste good? I bet it does.

Now let's just go through the recipe to see how you were successful in making your bean and plantain stew.

So the first thing you would've done was to peel and dice the onion.

Then you would've diced the carrot, sliced the celery, peeled and chopped the garlic, peeled and sliced the plantain, and then drained and rinsed the red kidney beans.

Then you would've sprayed the saucepan a little bit of oil, and then we'd fried the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and chilli for about four minutes.

Then you would've added the plantain beans and chopped tomatoes, then you crumbled in the stock cube and added the water too.

Then you would've added the dry thyme, the all-purpose seasoning, and black pepper.

Hmm, I bet it smelled really good.

Then you would've stirred everything together and brought it to a boil.

Then you would've reduced the heat so it was simmering and you would've shimmered it about 15 to 20 minutes until the plantain is soft.

Wow, amazing work.

Well done to you.

I've got another little task for you here, and I want you to create a nutrition label for the bean and plantain stew.

So here are the instructions.

So follow the link, add the ingredients in its weight, which I've just put to the right hand side of the screen.

Then in Explore Food, click summary, then change the number of portions to four and click calculate, then click create label, and then print or save your labels.

So good luck to you.

This is the great task and I'm sure you're gonna do absolutely brilliantly.

Come back soon.

Okay, so how'd you get on? I bet you did fantastically, didn't you? Did you enjoy doing the nutritional analysis? I always do.

It's great to find out how much energy and nutrients different foods provide, and here's what it should look like.

So you've got the front of pack information to the left.

And on the right hand side, we've also got the back of pack nutrition information.

And we've got a lot of greens here, haven't we? So it's a healthier choice.

Brilliant work, well done to you.

Well, we've learned so much today, haven't we? We've learned about Caribbean cuisine, the different types of plants, healthier eating, lots of cooking skills, as well as conducting nutritional analysis too.

So let's have a quick summary of what we've learned.

So the first thing is that this bean and plantain stew is from the Caribbean.

And the plantain is in the banana family, but they have thicker skins and are more starchy.

They are starchy food.

And recipes can be analysed to calculate how much energy and nutrients they provide.

We did that, do you remember? And lastly, we used lots of different food skills to make our bean and plantain stew.

So we used measuring, peeling, dicing, chopping, slicing, opening cans, draining, using the hob, do you remember? Simmering, and boiling, and then we did mixing too.

Well, fantastic lesson.

You did really well and hope you come back very soon through another cooking and nutrition lesson with me.

Thanks a lot.

Bye.