Sarson’s Cookery School – A Vinegar Kick to 3 Traditional Recipes and a Fun Day Out!

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of cooking and when I was offered the chance to attend Sarson’s Cookery School event at Central Street Cookery School in London, EC1, I was more than pleased to go and learn some invaluable lessons from Nick Coffer, this generation’s best loved Daddy Food Blogger and a very talented and personable chef.

Sarson’s Cookery School’s Chef, Nick Coffer from My Daddy Cooks

(Image taken from www.pjproductions.co.uk)

Nick found himself as a stay-at-home dad after losing his business in 2009. Stemming from his love for cooking for his children at home (6 year old Archie and 2 year old Matilda), Nick set up a hugely successful blog, My Daddy Cooks, which features videos of Nick cooking recipes with his children, with the focus on being fresh, healthy and interesting meals cooked on a very modest budget.

In 2010, Nick published My Daddy Cooks book which is a best-seller in its category. Nick also presents a daily show on BBC Three Counties Radio from 12-3pm and weekly food show, Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen, on the same station on Saturday lunchtime. He appears regularly in national newspapers and lifestyle magazines and on national radio and television, talking about issues ranging from food to parenting.

What is Sarson’s Cookery School All About?

As part of a new campaign focusing on families, Sarson’s vinegar has teamed up with Nick Coffer to create a selection of fun and healthy recipes that are simple and enjoyable to cook with the kids. The emphasis is on making cooking fun and encouraging children to get involved with creating healthy and tasty recipes that they will enjoy creating as well as eating.

The recipes are all prepared using Sarson’s, demonstrating the versatility of the nation’s favourite malt vinegar and proving it doesn’t just taste great on a portion of chips! The four recipes below especially created by Nick include salt and vinegar popcorn, a healthy twist on traditional fish and chips, a barbeque marinade with a kick and crispy meringue pavlova.

“I am absolutely delighted to be working with Sarson’s. Not only is it an iconic brand, I have memories of using it from when I was barely knee high to my mum in the kitchen! For me, fish and chips is one of the ultimate family meals and it is never eaten without Sarson’s in my house. I have really enjoyed creating a delicious twist on traditional fish and chips and I can ensure that my tasty barbeque chicken wings with a kick will be a hit with parents and children alike.”

Sarson’s Cookery School Event

I was excited to get started and attend the Sarson’s Cookery School event. I planned to take the boys, but they had terrible sleep the night before and were very grumpy when they woke up in the morning. So, hubby agreed to look after them and I would go to the event alone. I was gutted to have not brought them, though, because when I had arrived, mums were already there with their children, sitting around a large kitchen table, listening to Nick talk about his cooking background. I was hugely impressed by the kitchen, secretly wishing that my own kitchen could look remotely like the counters that were neatly lined around the entire room, stacked with tons of amazing cooking utensils.

Nick got started straight away, conscious of the time we had allocated for cooking 4 recipes and talked about how to get the kids involved in the kitchen. Nick briefly talked about what we had available in front of us to make these recipes and how we could get the children involved too. I would have to make a mental note of this as I was on my lonesome this time.

Barbeque Marinade with a Kick – for Chicken Wings

We started off by learning how to make a very delicious, sweet and zingy marinade for the chicken wings set out in front of us. Nick taught us how to trim chicken wings, first by cutting the wings’ tips and then the main wing in half, finishing off with trimming off any fat along the sides.

The marinade smelled gorgeous and I made a quick note of all the ingredients, so that I could try them out at home. We gave our marinated chicken wings to Nick’s assistants, who then placed them all in the fridge to set for about an hour.

Check out Nick’s tasty barbeque marinade recipe here.

Once the chicken wings were out of the oven, we all got to taste everyone’s masterpieces and, boy, did they taste good! The honey provided a fantastic sweet taste to the chicken and the vinegar offered a lovely kick at the end.

Here is the recipe for Sarson’s Barbeque Marinade with a Kick!

Salmon Goujons and Traditional Fish and Chips

As part of the recipe, A healthy Twist on Traditional Fish and Chips, we made some salmon goujons, covered in panko breadcrumbs, lemon and sundried tomatoes, which Nick believes to be a very healthy and equally gorgeous way to bread fish or chicken for the family. I was amazed at how quickly you could prepare these goujons and pan fry them in literally 5 minutes! Perfect for the busy parent.

I almost burnt my goujons, not realising that the salmon cooks itself for a few minutes after you take them off the pan. Nick ran round to my aid and quickly whisked the goujons off the pan, to which I replied with, “But, I’ve only had them in the pan for 3 minutes!”

I was shown how to effectively slice the potatoes for the chips and they were taken away to be cooked together with the others.

Here is the full recipe for Sarson’s Healthy Twist on Fish and Chips.

Crispy Meringue Summer Fruit Pavlova

This was going to be my favourite recipe, I just knew it. I love Pavlovas, but I have never made them before. I was very surprised to learn that you add vinegar to the recipe, which I later found out was common knowledge for most folk. Adding cornflour folded in at the last minute ensures that the inside of the Pavlova is all soft and chewy and having known before that Pavlovas were round desserts, we ended up making a rectangular version instead. I really struggled with making the cream, twice overbeating the eggs, resulting in curdled cream. Nick took pity on me and helped me make the third batch, which thankfully came out all nice and fluffy.

We decorated our Pavlovas with tons of strawberries and kiwis, flowing around the table, and I couldn’t help but sneak in a few bites of the gorgeous fruit.

Here is the recipe for Crispy Meringue Summer Fruit Pavlova.

Salt and Vinegar Popcorn

Now, I normally like my popcorn sweet or salted, but I’ve never tried salt and vinegar popcorn before and I felt like I had missed out all these years. I absolutely love very salty and vinegary fat chips, so of course I was going to love salt and vinegar popcorn. I make popcorn all the time at home for the boys as they are huge popcorn lovers like I am, so I knew how to make popcorn quite well. Simply add 100g of popcorn kernels to a heated and oiled pan and close the lid tightly, shaking regularly to separate the kernels and holding the lid closed when the popcorns pop up inside the pan. As soon as the popping subsides, you take the pan off the heat and into a large bowl.

100g makes LOADS of popcorn, so opt for a large bowl.

Here is the recipe for Sarson’s Salt and Vinegar Popcorn.

On the whole, I had a fantastic time with Nick Coffer and the other mummy bloggers, and I learned so much about the versatility of Sarson’s vinegar. My favourite part of the whole day was making the summer fruit pavlova and I will definitely be reproducing all of these recipes at home.

Sarson’s invited Motherhood Diaries to attend their Sarson’s Cookery School in London, and have not paid me in any way to create a post about the event. The post is completely my decision because I wanted to share with you how awesome Nick Coffer and the Cookery School are and how easy it is to make these great and healthy recipes.

Subscribe here to stay on top of new content added to Motherhood Diaries. 

If you’d like to share your wealth of experience and knowledge with our community then you can apply to become a Motherhood Diaries’ Contributor here.