Kitchen classroom

Kids learn to cook Mexican favorites

By Jomay Steen, Journal staff | Friday, May 02, 2008

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With her red chili pepper apron and dynamic style, students know Colleen Lecy is teaching one hot cooking class at Someone’s In The Kitchen.

Lecy, along with sidekick Roberta Lecy, welcomed eight young chefs to her two-hour Kids Cook Mexican class. As St. Elizabeth Seton School principal, Lecy knows her way around a classroom as well as a kitchen. It was her fifth time since the fall that she had chopped, mixed and baked her way through a kid-friendly curriculum of recipes.

“I enjoy it and I think it’s important that people find out what they like to do,” she said of the kids cooking class.

Testing the water to discover if children were interested in culinary skills, she had started with a cooking class at St. Elizabeth Seton during summer school. It was a success.

“It filled; so I did another one. I’m comfortable doing this with children,” Lecy said.

Included in all the delicious foods, Lecy has incorporated incidental learning, too, such as measurement, fractions, math and time. Also, there’s the chemistry of foods reacting to sustained heat and freezing cold, a food pyramid, differences between vegetables, fruits and dairy and then the cultural aspect of the food prepared in each recipe — who knew?

Lecy also offered the culinary tips that would last a lifetime.

While some of the kids watched, others washed up to help shred chicken, measure, add ingredients and chop vegetables. Those sitting out during the demonstrations followed the lesson using their recipe pages—making notes on how to improve a recipe when using fresh ingredients or other options.

The class flew along, with generous samples of enchiladas, salsa, nachos and finished with Mexican hot chocolate ice cream prepared with the help of the kids.

For Halli Schulz, 9, salsa was a favorite.

“It doesn’t taste like it comes from a jar. It tastes fresh,” she said.

Tanner Blank, 11, suggested that Lecy’s next cooking class include appetizers. Twin brother Bryce asked if she had taught a drink class yet.

“I like thinking about special occasions, you could make something special for the kids—like a punch or a soda,” Bryce said.

Lecy liked those suggestions and offered her own idea of Kids Cook Desserts.

Brandon Rezich, 11, said it would be a class he’d take.

“Oh, yeah,” Rezich said.

“That would be awesome,” Tanner Blank agreed.

Contact Jomay Steen at 394-8418 or jomay.steen@rapidcityjournal.com.

Lecy’s dozen cooking rules in one mad, hot kitchen:

Before you begin, it’s a good to read the recipe all the way through to the end.

Get out all ingredients, measure out into small containers—if phone rings, you won’t accidentally leave out an ingredient or double a measurement.

It’s important to clean up as you go through the recipe—it’s a lot easier to clean.

Food can become contaminated from cutting boards, keep them clean.

Never put a wood cutting board into a dishwasher.

Glass cutting boards will dull the blade of your knife.

Jalapeno pepper, measure carefully—you can always add more, but you can’t take it out.

If you’re working with hot peppers, you should always use gloves.

Never put a sharp knife into the sink and let go of it, wash it up immediately, rinse, dry and return it to its place to avoid serious cuts to hands or fingers.

If you have a garden, substitute two to three fresh tomatoes for a can of tomatoes.

For a finer texture to salsa, leave it in the food processor a little longer for desired texture.

Line the nachos baking sheet with foil before adding chips and fixings for easy cleanup.

Enchiladas

12 corn tortillas

1/2 cup butter

1 can (30 ounces) enchilada sauce

1 can (4 ounces) tomato paste

4 cups cheddar cheese, grated

2 cups chicken, poached and shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix enchilada sauce and tomato paste.

Spread 1 cup of sauce mixture in bottom of 9-by-13-inch pan, not an aluminum pan.

Cook 1 tortilla at a time in small frying pan in about 1 teaspoon butter until tortillas are soft and pliable. (Colleen Lecy melts the entire amount of butter into a large skillet and cooks two tortillas at a time.)

Place cheese and chicken in each tortilla. Roll, jelly-roll style, and place seam-side down in a pan. Pour remaining sauce over top. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until bubbly. Makes 6 servings.

Salsa

1 medium sweet onion

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup cilantro, remove woody stems and bad leaves

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons sugar

1 can (15 ounces) Mexican-style stewed tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

1 fresh jalapeno chili, chopped (optional)

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process with pulsing action until blended. Makes 2-1/2 cups

Cheese Quesadilla

Flour tortillas

Grated cheese

Salsa

Place tortilla in the bottom of the quesadilla maker. Sprinkle cheese in the center of the tortilla. Add salsa. Place another tortilla on top of the cheese and salsa. Put the lid on the quesadilla maker the place in the microwave. Heat until the cheese has melted (about one minute, depending upon microwave.) Take out of microwave and remove lid. Flip lid so that the blades are facing down the handles are aligned with handles at the base. Press down to cut the quesadilla. Rock the cutting blades side to side to fully cut through the quesadilla. Serve. You also may add favorite toppings such as chicken, peppers and onions.

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

1 cup Mexican chocolate powder

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1-1/2 cups whole milk

3-1/4 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Place the chocolate powder and sugars in a medium bowl. Using a wire whisk, stir to combine. Add the whole milk to the dry mixture. Mix with whisk until chocolate and sugars are dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla.

Pour mixture into freezer bowl of ice cream freezer. Mix until thickened, about 25 to 35 minutes. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If a firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream to an air-tight container and place in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours. Remove from freezer and serve.

Nachos

Tortilla style chips

Grated cheese

Salsa

Place tortilla chips on cookie sheet or pizza pan. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Add dollops of salsa. Bake in 250-degree oven until cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.

Super Nachos

Follow the above recipe, adding additional ingredients such as jalapeno peppers, taco meat, shredded chicken, olives and onions. This is a great recipe to use leftover chili or taco ingredients.

Chili con Queso

1 package Velveeta cheese

1 cup salsa

May use chili, too

Place in glass bowl and heat in microwave, stirring every 15 seconds, until melted. Serve with tortilla chips.