In June 2019, the Livestock and Meat Commission marked the beginning of another series of ‘Meat Skills’ workshops for Food and Nutrition teachers, at CAFRE Loughry Campus.

The workshops were hosted in conjunction with the Food Teacher’s Centre, with beef and lamb being supplied by ABP food group. The focus of the workshop was to help develop skills and confidence of Food and Nutrition teachers when teaching about the Northern Ireland Farm Quality Assurance (NIFQA) Scheme and demonstrating NIFQA beef and lamb cookery skills.

Recipes were selected from the food4life website and incorporated a range of knife skills, cooking techniques and presentation competencies. The recipes included:

• Beef with Mango and ginger
• Spicy lamb koftas with mango and yogurt dip
• Lamb Skewers
• Steak burger with onion marmalade
• Creamy peppered beef

Attendees had the opportunity to cook every dish from scratch, right down to mincing the lamb shoulder for spicy koftas and kebabs.

 Feedback received following the event was overwhelmingly positive with attendees saying;

“A very well thought out day. Excellent”

“An excellent session…Thank you for a great day”

Following the success of the previous workshop we hope to hold a further two workshops in term one of the 19/20 academic year. Have a look through the photos and keep an eye out on food4life so you don’t miss out on the next workshop!

Presentation skills used for beef with mango and ginger

Meat structure lecture by Simon from The Food Teachers Centre, followed by a meat preparation cutting skills practical

Food handling and presentation skills practical with spicy lamb kofta and lamb kebab recipes

The selection of dishes cooked were bright, colourful and of course very tasty! 

Lauren Hyde - 26 Jul 2019