How’s that for a challenge !
Last Friday night myself and well knowN actor and local celebrity Chris Duddy took to the stage in aid of Mary’s Meal as a well known duo from Grease the musical!
Now as you may have heard I sang the role of Sandy and Chris was Danny. We had a great nights fun and entertainment with many talented local artists taking to the stage and singing their hearts out for a great cause. A total of €1,000 was raised on the night a fantastic achievement and a testament to hard work by all involved.
I’ll be honest I knew absolutely nothing about what Mary’s Meals do and it was only when the committee were thanking everyone at the end of the night that I realised that for €14.50 they can feed one child a meal everyday that they attend school for a year!
Chef Martin Anderson
I quote “These life-changing meals attract hungry children into the classroom. The food fills their empty bellies so they have the energy and opportunity to learn, giving them the chance of a brighter future. The meals also support families struggling to feed their children while boosting the country’s wider economy.”
So let’s put that into perspective on Friday night. They raised enough money to feed 69 children one meal a day for everyday they attend school! Well worth eveyone’s efforts I’d say!
And then it started to sink in €14.50 a year per child! I did a bit of research and discovered these children are getting a meal a day of chicken, fish, rice, cornmeal, curry and depending what part of the world they are in a dish from their local cuisine, teachers, helpers and volunteers take turns to cook the food and over a million children are being fed. Amazing stuff I hear you say.
Well it is of course. How do they get that amount of food so cheap for a start? who knows maybe because they buy it in bulk ! Now lets be honest I’ve made a career out of making and selling food and yep we are doing fine in Sonder considering we are only open 6 weeks but I’ll never be able to buy that amount of food that cheap to sell it on but one thing i will be able to do is make sure i don’t dump that amount of food and use the money i save to donate to Charities like Mary’s Meals , we did make a Donation on the night and it was great to see how many we have helped .
i have a policy in Sonder nothing gets Dumped , I’d rather give the food away to the Workers or to the lucky clients on a Saturday evening , especially the tray bakes , they go down a treat .
Kitchen management is not just about looking after the way food is cooked but also about how it is bought, looking after your portions and waste.
My secret is that we never store more food on site than we need. We use local suppliers that are more than willing to deliver everyday so that the food is always fresh. I never over purchase or produce food. We take great care in making sure each dish is prepared to order and served just as the diner requests. There is no point in loading a plate with food that no one is going to eat – that’s why we give you the choice at the deli.
See what you want and like to eat and we’ll make sure you get it in the knowledge that it’s prepared just for you .
You too can do this at home. How many 3 litre cartons of milk can you use in a week ? I know for a fact that there are gallons of milk being dumped everyday. When in actual fact if you bought your milk more often you wouldn’t need to dump it.
Special offers of buy two get one free are also a hidden danger. What are you going to do with all that food, freeze it ?
Go shopping more often and buy fresher local produce and I’m sure you will see a difference. My old friends the avocado are a prime example as I’ve said before , ripen at home and the minute they are ripe ……they are ready for the bin. It’s all a trick!
The other side of the coin is that food that is long dated is usually pumped so full of preservatives and oils that they never go off. It gives you a false sense of security…”oh it’s got a long date i’ll buy it.”
Next thing you know you are buying mass produced food, gaining weight and wondering what you’re going to do with 40 pot noodles of various flavours .
Be aware stores really don’t care what you do with the food once you get out the door as long as it’s paid for that’s the main thing.
Yes they promote local suppliers. I had a lovely steak on Saturday night from a local store. The farmer’s photo was on the front of the packet and very proud he was standing in his field. It was great to see but then I looked at the amount of packets with this guys face and I thought “Flip he must be flat out working to produce this amount of beef nationwide – a busy man for sure.”
I wonder could he survive on €14.50 a year?
So as I said the word tray bake in the article I thought I’d give you a couple of tray bake recipes to cheer you all up.
We serve tray bakes from Cafe Banba in Carndonagh and also from Baker Lane who sell their baking at the Letterkenny Artisan market.
By doing this we have a fresh choice of tray bakes everyday and the Sonder Team get to take a few home on Saturday evening!
Mint Aero Tray bake
Ingredients
100g butter
200g milk chocolate
3 tablespoons Golden Syrup
225g finely crushed digestive biscuits
225g Mint Aero Bubbles
Method
Melt together the butter, chocolate and syrup then add the crushed biscuits and the mint aero bubbles Mix together quickly then pour into a lined swiss roll tin, level with a spoon and chill till set.
For a special occasion drizzle with some melted white chocolate. Once chilled, cut into squares.
Rocky road biscuit crunch.
You will need.
125g of butter.
300g of good quality dark chocolate.
3 tbsp of golden syrup
200g of rich tea biscuits.
100g of cherries cut in half
100g of mini marshmallows
Chocolate sprinkles or similar.
Method.
Melt your butter, syrup and chocolate in a pot over a low heat.
Place the biscuits into a freezer bag and crush with a rolling pin until some have turned to crumbs but you are still left with some pieces.
Pour the chocolate mix into a large bowl.
Fold in the biscuits, and allow to cool for 5 minutes ,add the marshmallow and cherries.
Scrape out onto a tray which you have lined with either cling film or greaseproof paper, sprinkle with the decorations and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
Turn out onto a chopping board and cut to your desired size..
For a really indulgent treat, heat slightly in the microwave and serve with ice cream .
Just in case you didn’t believe that myself and Chris really did perform for the Mary’s Meals Fundraiser……this is us!
“You’re the one that I want……” Martin and Chris
Check out Mary’s Meals for yourself at www.marysmeals.ie
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