© Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015 Being creative!

Lesson objectives To identify ways to be creative when choosing recipes and ingredients and cooking foods. © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015

Recipe Choice When choosing suitable recipes, it is important to understand who will be eating the dish, the occasion, time of day or theme. You could: find different recipes in magazines, books, supermarket leaflets and recipe cards; search the internet but choose your websites carefully as some recipes might not have been tested; ask family and friends for their favourite recipes – these could be traditional or more modern. © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015

Ingredient choice Try something new such as a herb or spice, e.g. saffron, nigella seeds or dried kaffir leaves; Research and use unusual vegetables such as salsify, celeriac, cassava, kohlrabi and romanesco broccoli; Investigate exotic fruits like rambutan, physalis, persimmon (Sharon fruit), pitaya (dragon fruit), carambola (star fruit) or custard apples; Try different cuts of beef and lamb that you have not used before. © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015

Fuse ingredients, recipes and cultures! Fusion food is a cuisine that combines elements of different culinary traditions. The most well known fusion food is TexMex which is a combination of Texan and Mexican flavours and recipes. Why not create your own fusion food? Try different flavours, colours and textures to produce a new and exciting recipe! © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015

Cooking methods Try different cooking methods: grill, stir fry, steam or microwave to reduce the amount of fat used and retain vitamins and minerals; BBQ meat, fish and vegetables; cook meat and fish ‘en papilotte’ (in a folded parchment parcel); use metal or wooden skewers to make kebabs; use vegetable sticks to make koftas. © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015

Being inspired! Sometimes you can be inspired and creative using a small range of ingredients. Look at the ingredients provided from the following three shopping bags – what you would make? Explain your choice. © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015

What would you make? © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015 Tip: Press the space bar to see all the ingredients!

What would you make? © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015 Tip: Press the space bar to see all the ingredients!

What would you make? © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015 Tip: Press the space bar to see all the ingredients!

Acknowledgement For further information, go to: © LMC 2015 © Livestock & Meat Commission for Northern Ireland 2015