To our dear friends in Beech Hill Primary School, UK who sent us some mouth-watering recipes. Your photos got us excited to try out your recipes at our end...                             

Dear friends,

Thank you very much for the lovely recipes. My favourite was cheesecake. To tell you the truth I had never heard of any cake that is made without a cake oven, but is cooled in the fridge.

I will never forget the experience of making delicious cheesecake in school based on your recipe. But after cutting the frozen cheesecake and leaving the pieces on the plates for some time while serving it all started to melt. Climate of your country must be quite cool and dry now so I’m sure you never faced any problem of this kind. Climatic factors surely have a role in the dishes we make. You mentioned fruit juice/sauce for garnish, but we used honey and dry fruits. Which fruit sauce did you use? One of our friends tried it again at home and garnished with blueberry sauce.

I found that wheat is used in many European dishes. It was also the main ingredient for Victorian Sponge Cake. In India rice is the staple cereal and many of our dishes are made with rice like many other Asian countries.

Cheese seems to be a common ingredient in many European dishes. Two of the dishes we made for the pot-luck had a lot of cheese in them. We learnt that cheese is rich in protein and calcium. I never knew that garlic boosts immunity. We would really like to do further projects with you in case you are interested. Do let us know. We hope to hear from you soon.

D Pramod Kumar

Grade VII

Pragathi School

Hi friends,

We tried two sweet dishes, viz., Victorian Sponge Cake and Cheesecake from all the nice recipes you’d sent. We surfed the net a bit and selected mashed potatoes with cheese (Portuguese recipe) which looked easy to make and we included it in potluck. All dishes tasted good. We enjoyed the potluck a lot, many thanks to you!

After surfing the net we came to realise that both climatic and cultural factors impact the cuisine of a country. I observed that many European dishes have cheese as an important ingredient. The calcium and potassium of cheese help growth of teeth and bones while the protein helps muscle growth and tissue repair. I was amazed to learn that Italy alone makes more than 400 kinds of cheese!!

Through my research while I was looking for Portuguese recipes I got to know that Portugal grows most of the sweet potatoes of Europe’s total production. Maybe that’s why many Portuguese dishes have sweet potato. I also learnt of a herb called ‘dill’ used frequently in Norwegian dishes. I wonder what the flavour may be like! Cornmeal or ‘polenta’ is a major source of starch in Balkan countries. In wonder if it tastes like American corn.

Another amazing finding of mine was that pizza which we know of as Italian cuisine actually originated from Greece. I love pizza and Italian pasta that is made of wheat. The same wheat is made into pasta, pizza, bread and even tortillas. I read that this is because wheat is the staple cereal of Europe.

Frankly, I would never have got into so much research over food had it not been for the project with you! Thank you very much. Please stay in touch. We hope to see the artwork that I heard you are engaged in now.

Your friend

K Prasanna

Pragathi School