Nuffnang

Friday, December 12, 2014

~ Media Invite - Parent Child Cooking Workshop @ Food Playground ~


It was our first time participating in a Parent Child Cooking Workshop. Stepping into the Food Playground has been filled with anticipation. Founded in 2012, it is not your conventional culinary school. The team is made up of stay-at-home mums and active seniors who enjoy cooking and love to share their passion with others. What's interesting is they host culture cooking classes for tourists, which are 100% hands-on with easy to follow steps to enable them to cook up and understand Singapore's local food heritage and culture.

The kids wrote their name on their chef hat before we get into action. 

Can you guess what we will be cooking today just by looking at the ingredients?
(Chicken, dried scallops, dried octopus, lotus root, peanut, red dates, wolfberry, potato and onion)

Lena, our culinary instructor, has many years of cooking experience and is a stay-at-home mum herself! Her passion and vast knowledge makes the entire session inspiring and fun for everyone.

Before we reveal what the children are cooking, let's take a look at their progress. Denver & Gladys took turns to peel and slice the lotus root before putting the other ingredients into the pot.


If you have guess it correctly, we were cooking soup! The steps are easy and it was a great opportunity for the children to have hands-on practice and learn how to handle the blades. Everyone is busy cooking under the guidance of our friendly and experience culinary instructors from Food Playground.


Me with my little chefs.

While waiting for the soup to be ready, the children moved on to the next station. It was another interesting and interactive session where their knowledge were put to a test by attempting to name the ingredients that were displayed on the table.


What do you think are the kids are frying? 

They were frying the fillings for their Fried Popiah! 

It's wrapping time! The children did a lovely job wrapping their popiah up nicely!

Gladys looked like a potential chef herself with the pretty apron on.

While the children were busy cooking, let's take some time to learn more about traditional soup. Soup used to be a common dish on the dining table during my childhood days. Not only is it appetizing and nourishing, it is a comfort food for me whenever I do not feel well. However, as we become working adults and spending a lot of time working in the day, cooking at home seems challenging.

To enable more families to enjoy a taste of traditional soup, which usually takes hours to boil, Freshen Food Home-Style Soups debuted two traditional household favourite flavours where a bowl of soup will be ready in minutes.

~ Lotus Root & Peanut Chicken Soup (with Red Date & Wolfberry) - 165 calories per packet
~ Carrot & Potato Chicken Soup (With Onion) -  90 calories per packet


Ms Pamela Phua, founder of Freshen Group, grew a love for soups in her childhood under her maternal grandmother's influence. Her grandmother would bottle Cantonese soups and bring it over to Ms Phua's office when she is working late. This sparked the idea of developing traditional soups that are easy to prepare, yet authentic in taste and quality, just like they have been brewed for hours at home.

"These are traditional soups that fit into our modern lifestyles, so anytime you long for a bowl of home-brewed soup - whether at home or in the office, just open a pack and heat it up to enjoy its heartwarming comfort in minutes." - Ms Pamela Phua

Initially, I was a little skeptical about how this little packet can taste just like the ones as if it was brewed for hours. When the secret within was revealed, my immediate reaction was WOW! I wasn't expecting a piece of chicken drumlet to be within the packaging!

Lotus Root & Peanut Chicken Soup

Carrot & Potato Chicken Soup

This is made possible with retort food processing technology that uses pressurised steam for heat sterilisation. Freshen Food Home-Style Soups are cooked with fresh, all-natural ingredients, yet remain shelf-stable for over a year without any preservatives. The single-serve packaged soups are ready to heat-and-eat. Simply tear open a pack, pour its contents out to heat in a microwave oven or on a stove and it is ready to eat!

Heating guidelines
- Stovetop : Pour soup into a saucepan or pot, cover the lid and heat gently until hot.
- Microwave : Pour soup into a microwave-safe bowl and cover, heat on medium for 2.5 to 3 minutes.
- Hot water : Immerse soup pouch in boiling hot water for 10 minutes, open pack and pour soup into bowl.



Now, let's go back to check how are the children's soup coming along. Strong flavour of Chicken soup ooze out the moment we open the saucepan lid.


Let's put the Freshen Food Home-Style Soup and what our 'home-cooked' soup together. Can you tell which one is from the packaging?

(Freshen Food Home-Style Soup - Left bowl)

Compared to the one that was prepared by Denver & Gladys, the soup from Freshen Food package has a darker colour. In terms of flavour, Fresh Food soup is not as sweet as it does not contain any monosodium glutamate (MSG), additives or food enhancer. The chicken meat is tender and tasty while the lotus root is firm.


Denver & Gladys enjoyed the meal that they cooked up for the day! Lotus Root Chicken Soup with brown rice and fried popiah. 

This definitely helped to save a lot of time and effort and we can still enjoy a bowl of soup at our convenience.

Freshen Food Home-Style Soups have received the Health Promotion Board's (HPB) Healthier Choice Symbol for being over 25% lower in sodium and saturated fat, compared to conventional soups and broths. Staying true to the principles of nourishment in Chinese soup-drinking culture, the soups are seasoned only with salt, in order to maintain the natural flavour profile of each soup's ingredients.

Love to have a packet and try? 

Freshen Food Home-Style Soups are now available at the following retailers:
~ Kee Song Online (http://online.keesong.com)
~ NTUC FairPrice, FairPrice Finest and FairPrice Xtra (Major outlets)

Available soon
~ The Butcher's Dog (Great World City #B2-11)
~ Four Seasons Gourmet Market (Marina Bay Link Mall #B2-49)
~ Redmart (http://redmart.com)

Pricing
Lotus Root & Peanut Chicken Soup - SGD$6.95
Carrot & Potato Chicken Soup - SGD$5.95

1 comment:

Henry Lee said...

Wow, such an interesting workshop. Now your kids can cook for you guys at home. Hahaha...

Post a Comment