Barbara just sent out an email about the next meeting and noted the time for Friday May 30th at 10am. all other meetings on Fridays have been at 11am; is this a change or just was the wrong time noted?

  QUESTION: What are some suggestions for kids who like to cook?

  My son 11 soon to be 12 is an excellent cook! Very adventurous you might say. Fearless about eating or cooking new things.  He is frustrated with the lack of healthy cooking sites geared towards kids like him.  Any suggestions for websites, books, or YouTube type “channels”?

  Things he’s made, on his own: crockpot sweet & sour chicken, Chinese dinner (bok choy, peapods, tofu/chicken, onions, garlic etc., and rice), peanut butter, endless smoothies, salad(s), baked items, homemade dressings, beef jerkey, tunafish delish!, bread, fish, etc.
Thank you for your thoughts/comments.
MOM-B

ANSWERS: Andrea and Debbie both answered this question.  Be sure to read to the end.

Dear Mom-B,
It’s great that your son is so interested in cooking and is an adventurous eater! There are an overwhelming number of excellent cookbooks, websites, and food blogs, and it can take some time to find the ones that really speak to you. Since I work in the Children’s department, I looked through our collection to find some titles that may be of interest. Try:
Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen. This book, written by the founder of the Moosewood restaurant, contains healthy , delicious vegetarian recipes.
There’s a Chef In My Soup. Celebrity chef Emeril LaGasse has written  a fun collection of recipes from appetizers to desserts for kids.
Sweet Eats by Rose Dunnington, a mouthwatering collection of baked treats to make at home.
The Math Chef by Joan D’Amico reminds us that cooking is a math activity, but mostly is about making good stuff to eat!
Funny Food by Bill and Claire Wurtzel, while not a cookbook per se, will give you some creative ideas on putting some personality into your breakfast, and the photos will definitely make you smile!

I like to bake, so one website I enjoy is King Arthur Flour. There’s lots of great recipes and loads of information about baking. King Arthur is based in Norwich, VT and the store there makes for a fun little road trip (about 2 hours from Chelmsford). I also highly recommend Cooks Illustrated, but….content is not free. You can become a member for $34.95/year. Cook’s provides obsessively detailed information about food and cooking, along with videos, online cooking lessons, equipment tests and reviews, and of course recipes.

Debbie found these great resources:

Some good books at our library are:
Real food real fast, Sam Stern, J641.5/Ster
ChopChop, The Kids’ Guide to cooking real food with your Family, Sally Sampson, J641.5/Sam
Honest Pretzels : and 64 other amazing recipes for cooks ages 8 and up , Molly Katzen, J641.5/Katz

We also have the magazine, ChopChop, in the Children’s Section. It’s a fun cooking magazine for kids.

Other recommended cookbooks available through interlibrary loan are;
Mayo Clinic Kids’ Cookbook, Mayo Clinic
One World Kids Cookbook, Sean Mendez
Superfood Smoothies, Julie Morris

Some websites that you may want to look at:
Kids Health Recipes and cooking
Food Network – family and Kids
Cooking with Kids
Two websites from PBS: Kitchen Explorers and Hey Kids Lets Cook

YouTube videos:
Kids can Cook YouTube Channel

Cooking Shows:
Food Network has a Kid-oriented cooking show, called Rachael Vs. Guy: Kids Cook-Off and Fox Network has MasterChef Junior.

Happy cooking.

QUESTION:  I am confused about the difference between a biga, a poolish and a pate fermentee – how are they used in baking bread and are they easy for the home cook to try?

ANSWER by Debbie:
This was a very interesting question to research. Thank you for asking.  A wide array of methods to help jump-start your bread’s rising (fermentation) process fall under the heading of preferments , something that happens before the first major fermenting (rising) of your bread dough.

Poolish (often attributed to Polish origin) and biga are overnight starters, both utilizing domestic yeast (as well as wild). Poolish is a wet starter, made from flour, water, and a touch of yeast (about 1/16 teaspoon).

A biga- the Italian name for a starter, can be either wet or dry. Like the poolish, it begins with flour, water, and a tiny bit of yeast. It can develop overnight , or for up to three days.

A pate fermentee is fermented relatively slowly, so it has time to develop a complex flavor that comes through in the bread.

Although biga serves the same basic purpose as poolish or pate fermentee, it differs in a couple of important ways from the French-style starters. Flour milled from wheat grown in northern Italy contained less protein and developed less gluten during kneading than French flour. To build doughs that would be able to rise into breads with structural integrity, Italian bakers had to use a very firm, dry starter, biga. Biga ferments for a long time, allowing the protein in the flour to develop as much strength as possible. Italian bakers used to use a high proportion of biga (up to 90 percent) in their dough to give their breads strength and structure as well as to raise them. Poolish or pate fermentee is typically no more than 45 percent of dough recipes.

For the home cook, how do you know which, if any, of these preferments to use? When you’re just getting started, rely on your recipe; if it calls for a particular preferment, use it. Once you’ve become acquainted with the various types, use the one that fits your schedule, and that you feel produces the best flavor and texture in your bread.

Sources :
The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion 641.815/King
Baking – 350 recipes and techniques, 1500 photographs, one baking education, James Peterson, 641.815/Pete
Local Breads, Daniel Leader, 641.815/Lead
Tartine Bread, Chad Robertson, 641.815/Robe