Food & Drink

Young carers learn to cook healthy meals during special culinary lessons

YOUNG carers were given a helping hand in preparing tasty, healthy meals during special lessons. Carers aged from 17 to 25 were handed the kitchens at Wiltshire College to try out new culinary skills using tips from experts.

The sessions came to help young people who have caring responsibilities at home and may have the responsibility to cook up the meal for their families.

Wiltshire Council’s public health team invested in the cooking sessions with Phunky Foods, demonstrating some tasty dishes with tips and advice on how to best serve up a good healthy meal.

Phunky Foods is part of the commissioned communitybased programme, which has seen the service support the council’s health improvement programmes including the accessibility Healthy Us programmes, supporting adults with learning disabilities in Wiltshire.

Carer Shannon said: “My dad tried the food and said ‘that was absolutely delicious you can cook that for me again’.”

Fellow budding chef, Joe, said his sausage casserole was gratefully received by his grandma who has dementia and receives care.

Another of the young carers, a 17-year-old, said: “I learnt a lot today, especially what is a safe temperature for cooking meat.”

Cllr Laura Mayes, Wiltshire Council cabinet member for children’s services, said: “We provide a range of support for our young carers as we know they step up and care for their families when parents are not able to do so.

“These young people take on adult responsibilities all the time which can include making meals for the family.

“We held this event to show them how they can cook healthy meals for themselves and, when needed, for their families as well as helping to save money in the cost of living crisis.

“This will support them to develop the skills to use in their own homes, including safe food preparation, preservation, cost cutting, as well as cooking methods. Some of these young people have been asked to attend by their care coordinator as cooking is part of their caring role.

“We provide support to all our carers and we hope to be rolling this out to more young carers in the future.”

Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling, the cabinet member for public health, added: “Having the ability to cook simple healthy meals is a valuable life skill, even more so for young people who have extra responsibilities placed on their shoulders.

“We’re pleased to have provided these sessions and equipment and hopefully it’s given the young people who took part that little bit of extra confidence and eased the pressure on them a little as they carry out their important role.”

The public health team also provided slow cookers for the six young people attending the event, while the Weinstock Foundation provided food vouchers.

The cooking sessions were provided by Phunky Foods

Two ingredients for a slow energy release heaven

Are these cakes or biscuits, or something in between? I’m not sure, what I know is that they are super easy to make, taste great and hit the right spot at this time of year.

Pre-Christmas is a tricky time. It’s getting colder and darker and if you are anything like me your body will be craving all that is sweet, stodgy, carby, fatty and downright unhealthy.

But it’s also the time when conversations turn to what food, drinks and treats need to be bought for Christmas and the New Year. And how it might be a good idea to eat healthily for a couple of weeks before the festive period.

Literally, all you will need for these is: two bananas and approx 165g rolled oats. Talk about slow release energy!

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F/gas mark 4) and line a baking tray.

Crush the bananas with a fork until they are mushy, add the oats and mix. Form the mixture into round cookie shapes (they will not flatten) and bake for 10-15 minutes or until they take on a golden colour and are set firm.

You can allow them to cool before eating but I like them warm.

Now, the great thing about this recipe is that it can be customised at almost every turn (not that there are many).

Riper bananas will be sweeter. If you blitz the oats the cookies will be smoother, although too blitzed and you will end up with a paste.

You can add honey, chocolate chips, dried fruit, cinnamon, chopped nuts, anything really but make sure it is not too big when added to the mix.

They can be kept in an airtight container for a few days, if they last that long.

Add some chocolate for a less virtuous treat Nicola Varela/Unsplash

Food & Drink

A beginner’s guide to drinking port

CHANCES are you will have enjoyed a port after dinner, perhaps with cheeses, often around the Christmas season.

The most common port on sale and drunk in the UK is ruby port, but other versions are available, including white and the increasingly popular tawny.

In fact, you will begin to see articles about port and other fortified wines in all the glossy Sunday supplements very shortly if you haven’t already.

What is port?

Simply, it is a fortified wine, produced in the Douro Valley region of Portugal. It can only be produced there, nowhere else, to be called port.

There are three wine growing regions in the valley, each with a slightly different climate producing wines of slightly different character.

But essentially port will be a mix of wines from different grapes, of which six – Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Cão, and Tinta Amarela – are considered classic port varieties, though many others are grown in the region and will be used.

All ports start with the grapes being crushed and left to ferment for a few days. Often, this crushing is still done by foot.

Once half the sugar has turned to alcohol (7%abv), a grape spirit (referred to as ‘brandy’) is added to kill the yeast and stop the fermentation process. It also bumps the alcohol level up to 20%abv.

The wine is transferred to oak casks (sometimes metal) and left to age for a minimum of two to three years.

It is then that the port is assigned a ‘type’, i.e. whether it will be bottled or transferred to smaller oak casks known as pipes and left to age further.

Obviously, that is a very simplified version of the port production process. What follows is a simple, brief guide to the different types of port you might enjoy this month.

Ruby port

Made from red grapes, this port will be blended from various wines from vineyards across the Douro region. They are often aged for three years in casks before being bottled where they can last for a few years.

Ruby ports labelled ‘reserve’ may have been aged for four to six years. Serve at room temperature and enjoy in the classic way, with cheese.

Tawny port

Tawny Port starts out as ruby port, but is aged in oak casks for an extended period – between 10 and 40 years. The ageing process oxidises the port producing its mellow colour and a taste that is smoother than its ruby cousin. This is very popular in Portugal. Tawny port can be enjoyed with cheese but can also make a nice aperitif with pudding, especially something sticky and indulgent. If the port is the result of a single harvest it is known as Colheita port and is sometimes aged for only eight years. taste from very sweet to very dry and everything in between. It can be aged slightly longer in the cask. Although it is a lovely drink on its own, it can also be used in cocktails, or with tonic and lemon added.

It is worth noting that you can get a Colheita version of white port.

Late bottled vintage port

Known as LBV ports, these can be seen in very basic terms as the step between ruby ports and Colheita ports in that they are from a single harvest but are aged longer than ruby ports (though not as long as tawny ports).

They are generally filtered and so can be enjoyed poured from the bottle like a fine red wine.

Vintage

Vintage ports are rare. A vintage is only declared after an exceptional year and that does not happen often, perhaps only two or three times a decade.

Some estimates state that as little as 1% of all ports sold is a true vintage.

It is bottled after only two years in the cask and left to mature in the bottle for a number of years – some will hit peak flavour after 15 to 20 years, although they can be enjoyed when young.

The process will leave a sediment in the bottle which means it is best to decant it before enjoying it and it won’t last long after opening, so you need to enjoy it quickly.

It’s taste is full and holds up well against robust flavours.

Families learn to plan low-cost healthy meals

FAMILIES in Salisbury are being helped to create tasty and cost-effective during weekly cookery classes.

Wiltshire Council housing tenants have been taking part in lessons with The Pantry Partnership CIC, aimed at giving those involved the skills and confidence to eat healthily and on a budget.

The six-week course, held weekly at St Michaels Community Centre, in Bemerton Heath, is aimed at helping families plan low-cost nutritious meals to help with household budgets.

The Pantry Partnership is a social enterprise based in and around Salisbury who work with the local community, providing low cost, nutritious meals from surplus food that normally would go to waste and offering cooking workshops and food related activities that engage people around food and the benefits of low cost and healthy cooking.

Cllr Phil Alford, cabinet member for housing, said: “Supporting communities to live safely and healthily is a key priority in our business plan and with the current cost of living crisis, and the ever more important need to save money and budget effectively, we are delighted to team up with The Pantry Partnership to deliver these cookery courses to some of our Salisbury families.

“Participants have benefited from learning knife skills and all about food hygiene and, importantly, are also gaining some great budget advice, healthy recipe ideas, shopping tips and techniques.

“They also have the added benefit of taking their freshly prepared and healthy meals home to their families after each session. Participants are also provided with aprons and knives to help to get them started back at home.

“Our housing resident engagement officers are always looking to work with residents to provide opportunities to be involved in positive activities that promote skill development, as well helping them to adopt healthy behaviours while keeping costs down.

“We hope to be able to offer more of these courses in the future.”

Director of The Pantry Partnership, Fiona Ollerhead, added: “The course has been designed to include both parents and their children, helping families to make finances stretch to meet smaller budgets as well as aiming to ensure healthy eating is not only experienced but enjoyed by young people.

“One of the approaches that we aim to instil is a love of food using basic and simple (and often also low cost) ingredients to create delicious food, thus inspiring people to continue to cook easy, yet tasty meals at home, on a budget. M

“We are also keen to save food from going into the bin, so we show people through demos and activities how to make the best of fruit and vegetables, bread and odds and ends and to create healthy meals from them.”

Siobhan, one of the course participants, said: “Thank you so much for such a great start to the cookery course. We love our aprons and knives.”

Information about Wiltshire Council’s cost of living support, including energy cost advice, housing advice and financial support, can be found at www. wiltshire.gov.uk/cost-of-living.

C Y CM MY CY CMY K The course aims to help families plan low-cost, nutritious meals

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