Junior Certificate Practical

Kevin!

Hi,

My Junior certificate practical is in three weeks and I'm in a bit of a predicament.

I've been elected to do the task with soup/fruit desert.

I'm thinking about doing a simple vegetable soup with maybe an apple crumble (or something easier?)

I'm not a very good cook, and my JC is in a very short amount of time.

Could you please recommend easy solutions and possibly recipes? (taste fantastic, but simplistic to make)

cheers,

Kevin

Faith

So you have to do any soup and any dessert?

Darina Allen has a wonderful recipe for potato and leek soup that I adore, and it's really easy to make.

As for dessert, well I could list thousands of possibilities! Have you any baking experience? Perhaps a cheesecake would be nice? Or banoffi pie, that's really simple and tastes great.

Acoshla

Tiramisu would be a pretty easy dessert? No cooking involved, or does there have to be some of that in it?

Edit: I've just realised it's a practical, as in you have to do it on the spot, wasn't thinking straight sorry, tiramisu would have to set.

Kevin!

I think the desert has to contain fruit, but It doesn't have to be cooked as far as I know. (I'll check the exact requirements tomorrow in school)

That leek & potato recipe looks good, i'll give that a shot.

any ideas for simplistic fruit deserts that are impressive

smallgarden

- minimum 3 fruit or veg in total
-skill important e.g chopping,blending, try use baking method for fruit dessert e.g rubbing in for crumble,creaming for eves pudding or upside pineapple cake
- soup can be hot or cold and must be served in soup tureen.simple soups are carrot and ginger,carrot and parsnip,mushroom,tomato soup etc
- garnish soup with little bit parsley or chives,makes it look really good
- fruit salad has lots of skill if dont want to do cooked dessert.if you serve it in melon or pineapple bowl it looks really good
- wouldnt do mixed veg as so much chopping involved
- wastage is key factor so make sure not to throw out good food,wrap anything you dont use in clingfilm,peel veg sparingly etc.grossly theyl check your bin to make sure you havent used tiny bit of an apple and binned the rest type thing.obviously if its rotten or bad then thats fine to bin

Kevin!

smallgarden wrote: »

- minimum 3 fruit or veg in total
-skill important e.g chopping,blending, try use baking method for fruit dessert e.g rubbing in for crumble,creaming for eves pudding or upside pineapple cake
- soup can be hot or cold and must be served in soup tureen.simple soups are carrot and ginger,carrot and parsnip,mushroom,tomato soup etc
- garnish soup with little bit parsley or chives,makes it look really good
- fruit salad has lots of skill if dont want to do cooked dessert.if you serve it in melon or pineapple bowl it looks really good
- wouldnt do mixed veg as so much chopping involved
- wastage is key factor so make sure not to throw out good food,wrap anything you dont use in clingfilm,peel veg sparingly etc.grossly theyl check your bin to make sure you havent used tiny bit of an apple and binned the rest type thing.obviously if its rotten or bad then thats fine to bin

Thank you so much for your useful tips, much appreciated.

Will keep an eye on the bin and make sure everything is stored, any ideas for the desert?

cheers,

Kevin

sleepyescapade

When I did my Junior Cert practical I also got the soup/fruit thing - I went with a veg soup and a fruit salad in a melon basket

Minder

Eton Mess has to be about the simplest non cooked dessert - contains fruit and takes about 10 minutes to make.

You need soft fruits - raspberries, strawberries and blackberries if you can get them (One type is fine, all of these is luxury). A pot of double cream or whipping cream, a packet of meringues and a little caster sugar.

Remove the stalks from the strawberries and quarter them. If using the raspberries & blackberries, put about a quarter of the fruit in a bowl and mash it a little with a fork to bruise it, then add the rest of the fruit and the sugar (1 or 2 tablespoons). If you're only using chopped strawberries, just add the sugar. The sugar will draw the juices from the fruit making a syrup.

Softly whip the cream, add broken up meringues and the fruit and fold together. Serve into individual bowls and drizzle over the fruit syrup.

In a 30 minute practical, I'd do the fruit first with the sugar and leave that to stand while I whipped the cream, broke the meringues and made the soup. That would leave the fruit a good long time to macerate (Make syrup!)

The dessert should be a pile of meringue, cream with streaks of fruit syrup through it - like a raspberry ripple ice-cream. Google it for pictures.

The Hill Billy

I think that the other posters have given you enough "food for thought" (pardon the pun).
I just wanted to wish you the best of luck in your exams Kevin!

smallgarden

id do fruit salad served in melon or pineapple bowl/boat.theyre easy to do but look impressive!
or eves pudding which is all in one method bun mixture layered over layer of apples.its yummy and easy to make
another thing to make sure you use fresh fruit.i.e dont use tinned fruit or frozen fruit
good luck,ul be grand

2xj3hplqgsbkym

Stick to the recipes in your Junior cert book, i.e Eve's pudding( or apple cake), apple (and berry) crumble or fresh fruit in a melon basket or pineapple with a light fruit syrup.

Do not do Eton Mess or Tiramisu as suggested as you will loose all marks for skill.

Practice both dishes together over Easter (again and again and again) and time yourself.

Good luck

CookieMonster.x

The ones that are doing that task in my class are doing leek and potato soup and a raspberry coulie (sp?). Simple enough I think.

Kevin!

I made that leek and potato soup, which was posted previously on here.

It tasted very nice, but the only thing I would be worried about is total time needed to make it, as I think I'm limited to 1hr 30 to make both, and I'd like to have a little bit of time left over incase something goes wrong.

Is there a soup that takes less time?

cheers,

Kevin.

The Sweeper

Shawn Broad Crab wrote: »

Stick to the recipes in your Junior cert book, i.e Eve's pudding( or apple cake), apple (and berry) crumble or fresh fruit in a melon basket or pineapple with a light fruit syrup.

Do not do Eton Mess or Tiramisu as suggested as you will loose all marks for skill.

If it's true that you loose marks for skill by making something that isn't in your book, (which I think is incredibly silly, but I can also completely see how it would be true in a junior cert exam) then you'll have to pick a soup recipe out of the book as well.

Kevin!

The Sweeper wrote: »

If it's true that you loose marks for skill by making something that isn't in your book, (which I think is incredibly silly, but I can also completely see how it would be true in a junior cert exam) then you'll have to pick a soup recipe out of the book as well.

I don't think it's so much having to pick them out of the book, you just have to pick ones that have a little bit of skill in them to impress the examiner

olaola

Kevin! wrote: »

I made that leek and potato soup, which was posted previously on here.

It tasted very nice, but the only thing I would be worried about is total time needed to make it, as I think I'm limited to 1hr 30 to make both, and I'd like to have a little bit of time left over incase something goes wrong.

Is there a soup that takes less time?

cheers,

Kevin.

Pea soup?

Kevin!

olaola wrote: »

Pea soup?

Looks quick(er), is it nice? no comments posted on it

kylith

Kevin! wrote: »

I don't think it's so much having to pick them out of the book, you just have to pick ones that have a little bit of skill in them to impress the examiner

I think you're right. Delicious as Eton Mess and Tiramisu are they don't really have much cooking in them. something like Bread and Butter Pudding would probably be alright.

Kevin!

mm, any more ideas on delicious but quick to make soup?

-sorry for pestering, just a wee bit stressed as the date is coming ever so closer-

smallgarden

http://thehealthyirishman.com/2009/03/roast-carrot-and-parsnip-soup/

this soup sounds nice and quick to make,handy thing about roasting veg is that you can do more stuff than when its on a hob

Minder

Kevin! wrote: »

I don't think it's so much having to pick them out of the book, you just have to pick ones that have a little bit of skill in them to impress the examiner

kylith wrote: »

I think you're right. Delicious as Eton Mess and Tiramisu are they don't really have much cooking in them. something like Bread and Butter Pudding would probably be alright.

No skill in making a zabaglione? Whipped foamy eggs yolks cooked in a Bain Marie with added alcohol. If you don't turn that into scrambled eggs, it is then folded into a thick heavy sweet cream - mascarpone. Keep that light and fluffy if you can.

Tiramisu isn't appropriate as it has no fruit and needs setting time in the fridge. Eton Mess isn't complex enough (or retro enough). Shame about the Tiramisu - fits well with the retro feel of the curiculum - melon baskets! Add a glace cherry for real pizazz!

The Sweeper

I can actually remember Eve's Pudding being on the JC curriculum when I did home economics in first year in school. That was a rather frightening 20 years ago.

Kevin, have you asked your teachers what's appropriate for you to be cooking, or how much weight the 'out of the book / not out of the book' argument carries? The more I think about the comment rosebush made, the more I'm wary of recommending any dishes. If the exam really is to investigate what you learned in the previous three years, then yes, Heston Blumenthal would fail junior certificate cookery. There's a difference between good, easy soup, with some skill, and a soup or a dessert the making of which will tick the boxes you're being examined on - and having never sat JC cookery, I don't know what those boxes are, which means I could make recommendations all the live long day and I may just be sending you wrong with them.

Kevin!

mm, head's melted.

Still trying to find a quicker solution to a tasty soup.

Made a sweet potato & chilli soup today, as I had a chilli soup on holidays and it was nice but this recipe certainty isint: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4333/sweet-potato-and-chilli-soup

I suppose the taste isin't too bad, but it's sooo thick.

Any suggestions for soup's that take about half an hour to make (all I can dedicate to it due to time constraints.

cheers,

Kevin.

moonflower

Carrot, sweet potato and chili is my go-to soup when I'm in a hurry and I'd saw it would tick the skill boxes as sweet potatoes can be a bugger to peel (use a veg peeler, you'll be at it all day with a knife). Peel and chop the carrots and sweet potato (3 carrots, 1 med sweet potato), fry off some onions in a pot in olive oil until they soften (5mins). Add the veg, throw on a lid and let them cook for 10 mins (You can work on your dessert during those 10 minutes). Throw in about a litre of vegetable stock and simmer it for 20-30 mins (or however much time you have, again work on your dessert while it's simmering). Blend it up, add a teaspoon of minced chilli (buy a jar or chop a birds eye chili finely), and serve it with some natural yoghurt swirled in.

For dessert you could do an exotic fruit salad, use some interesting fruit like dragonfruit, passionfruit, mango, lychee, I'm sure they'll get you more points than the usual apple, orange, grape fruit salad lineup. Or maybe caramalised bananas, they show skill.

There's usually good receipes to be found on tastespotting.com just enter "soup" or "fruit dessert" into the search bar and see what you find.

Hope that's of some help to you!

Kevin!

moonflower wrote: »

Carrot, sweet potato and chili is my go-to soup when I'm in a hurry and I'd saw it would tick the skill boxes as sweet potatoes can be a bugger to peel (use a veg peeler, you'll be at it all day with a knife). Peel and chop the carrots and sweet potato (3 carrots, 1 med sweet potato), fry off some onions in a pot in olive oil until they soften (5mins). Add the veg, throw on a lid and let them cook for 10 mins (You can work on your dessert during those 10 minutes). Throw in about a litre of vegetable stock and simmer it for 20-30 mins (or however much time you have, again work on your dessert while it's simmering). Blend it up, add a teaspoon of minced chilli (buy a jar or chop a birds eye chili finely), and serve it with some natural yoghurt swirled in.

For dessert you could do an exotic fruit salad, use some interesting fruit like dragonfruit, passionfruit, mango, lychee, I'm sure they'll get you more points than the usual apple, orange, grape fruit salad lineup. Or maybe caramalised bananas, they show skill.

There's usually good receipes to be found on tastespotting.com just enter "soup" or "fruit dessert" into the search bar and see what you find.

Hope that's of some help to you!

mm, after the chilli/sweet potato soup I made today, I think I'll be staying away from it but nice idea for the desert, cheers.

I was thinking about making a tomato soup but are tomatos in season and will I find cheap ones as I'll need like a kg of them.


any ideas for nice tomato soup recipes? this one has high ratings on allrecipies.com, but some of there stuff can be rotten:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Garden-Fresh-Tomato-Soup/Detail.asp

tomato soup the way to go?

cheers

CookieMonster.x

You have very little time to be deciding now. My practicals the day we come back so really you need to organise.
My advice would be to do leek and potato soup and a fruit kabab with raspberry coulee.
IMO, it's not too simple. If you can do it within the time and not have like 30 mins left at the end, well then it's fine. Just list the skills you're going to use and make sure they see. If it's nice, you will score well. Even if it doesn't turn out well, just say in your evaluation 'My soup did not taste nice because x' or 'there was a x taste to x' etc. Seriously, choose one of the soups you have made or in your home ec book.

Kevin!

It's over !

I made a tomato soup (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2075/tomato-soup) and halved the recipe as I didn't need that much.

I also made a tropical fruit salad in a Melon bowl, with Kiwi pineapple and melon. I didn't make the Raspberry Coulis as it wasn't working out in practice but I'm kind of regretting that now as I hope the desert was enough, I did make the juice for the fruit salad though (water+sugar+cinnamon stick+lemon juice mixture)

turned out well, tomato soup was nice and fruit salad was fresh. I also made basil toast to accompany the soup but she didn't taste it, she also didn't taste the salad I don't think but I think appearance is enough for examiners with some dishes.

Thank you everyone that helped above, and I'm gonna rep everyone in the thread (if possible!)