The project called Seafood in Schools with whom we work closely with on a regular basis. The project runs anchor events for school clusters, showing children , where seafood comes from, how it gets to your plate and why its good for you. Following on from Seafood in Schools events we often get asked to follow up with a live mackerel masterclass for the children.
Children perceptions of fish are often defined by past experiences, ( good and bad) and they are very influenced by what they have experienced at home. Most of the issues we encounter are around bones and of course the smell.
The Recipe
Mackerel dip this is one of our favourite recipes to make with children in a class room....the recipe that we are using is from Seafood Scotland and is on our recipe page.
The Set Up...
If we are travelling from school to school we try and keep equipment to a minimum, we are also aware that if schools would like to do this themselves then most schools have a small budget.
All of our equipment is bought from high street stores or the local supermarket. The mixing bowls are less than a £1 each, the scissors are about £2, as we use flexi-chopping boards which cost £2.50 for a set of 4 colour coded mats. These allow us to explain issues like cross contamination to the children.
If we are working in a classroom we will cover tables with disposable banqueting roll ( bought at a local wholesaler) which can be removed and out into paper recycling after use.
Depending on the age of the pupils and the timings for classes we either lay out all of the materials at workstations with the ingredients measured and prepared or we have the children collect them from a resource table.
Getting ready to cook...
Before we start the lesson all of the children, tie back long hair and wash their hands we aslo ask them to remove jewellery and remove nail varnish.
We provide disposable aprons and chefs forage hats.
Top tip: we ask all of the children to write their names on each side of their hat in big letters, that way we can speak to children individually by name. This helps to maintain control if there is a little too much excitement.
We also discuss tasting with the children before the lesson begins, asking them to think about it as an opportunity to try something new and assuring them that the worst thing that happens is that they don't like it and can use a napkin and put it discretely into a bin.
The Fish Chat...
Before we start we like to tell the children a bit about where the fish come from and how they are caught and processed.We use the Pelagic wall chart and the Sea to Plate journey from Seafood in Schools to talk to children about where mackerel comes from and how it gets to our plate, highlighting why oily fish should be part of a healthy diet.
Making the dip...
First of all we take the skin off the mackerel removing from head to tail.
Then we flake the mackerel into the bowl using our fingers this helps us to feel for the tiny bones, its a little messy but we provide cleansing wipes to clean hands afterwards. We then add the Greek yogurt, the horse radish ( only a little bit) and finally we use scissors to chop in the chives.
The children then clear up their dishes and wipe down the tables before we taste the dip and vote on who likes the dip. We also have a discussion to see if the children are surprised by what they like or don't like. Finally we give everyone their Mackerel Masterclass certificates and smile for the camera.
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