The 6th grade humanities classes have returned to the kitchen for their spring rotation, which journeys through four great civilizations: India, China, Greece, and Rome. For their first lesson back, the students listened to Indian music and learned to make a vegetable curry. Many were surprised to hear that curry is actually a mix of spices that varies from region to region and doesn’t derive from just one plant.
The curry we made starts with toasting whole cardamom pods, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, brown mustard seeds, and black peppercorns over low heat until fragrant and the seeds start to pop. Those spices are then ground by hand in a mortar and pestle with turmeric and red chili flakes.
We sauteed spring onions from the garden with the ground curry, then added fingerling potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and rainbow chard together with coconut milk and vegetable stock. The finished dish was served over brown basmati rice, which soaked up the beautiful golden liquid perfectly.
Some of the curry spices on our spice table
Toasting the spices not only creates a more robust taste, but also made the whole kitchen smell like cardamom
Grinding spices with a mortar and pestle
Cooking the spices with spring onions from the garden
Cooking the curry
The finished platter
The Central Kingdom
This week, the 6th graders learned a traditional Chinese cooking method, stir-frying, using a traditional Chinese cooking pot, the wok. On the blackboard, we wrote the Chinese characters for the name China, which is transliterated as zhong guo and translates into “central kingdom.” The first character, zhong, perfectly depicts its meaning with a vertical line bisecting a horizontal box. The second character, guo, is the character for “region” surrounded by a closed border. It was a fun visual demonstration for the students of how the language differs from English in its written form.
Now that the 6th graders are experts in the kitchen, we challenged them with this lesson to expand on their knife skills by slicing each ingredient of the recipe into a long and skinny shape, instead of into the usual chunks. They also divided the vegetables into two categories: crispy/crunchy and soft/leafy. By cutting everything into a similar size and shape and by starting the crispy/crunchy ingredients first, we ensured that everything cooked evenly.
First, the students seared firm tofu marinated with tamari, toasted sesame oil, and red chili flakes in the hot wok. Next, after removing the tofu, they sauteed minced garlic and ginger until fragrant. They added the crispy/crunchy vegetables (broccoli, celery, carrot, rainbow chard stem, purple cabbage) and cooked them for a few minutes, followed by the soft/leafy vegetables (rainbow chard leaves and green onion). The tofu was tossed back into the work for a final mixing, and the whole stir-fry was seasoned with more tamari and sesame oil.
At the closing circle, we discussed what it means for Chinese to be a tonal language, and the students learned one word representing each of the four major tones: jiang (ginger), you (oil), and dou fu (tofu). Not surprisingly, 6th graders take to one of the more difficult languages to learn much more quickly than adults!
The Chinese characters for the name China written on the blackboard
Slicing the chard into bite sized pieces
Cutting the blocks of tofu into long thin strips
Then the tofu is cut into thirds
And finally the tofu is seared in a wok