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Dragons are popular amongst kids and teens for quite a while, sure, in the last years several books and even films have put some extra fuel into the hype like Eragon, Dragon Rider, Dragonsdale, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher and of course movies like "How to Train Your Dragon" with the little hero Hiccup. Of course there are several dragon classics like the funny dragon Elliot from the Disney movie Pete's Dragon, or the tiny Grisou, or Fuchur from the neverending story and Tabaluga.
The lead part for our dragon soup is played by the dragon cookie cutter Lutz.
We love the funny shape of this dragon cutter and we love it because it is so versatile – not only for biscuits and cookies, As dragon riders, dragon trainers and dragon knights can't only eat sweet things during a party and most of our dragon parties took place during carnival (or Mardi Gras) what means plain winter, we choose to start the party with something nutritious and warm. The dragon's soups ingredients would please a dragon as well as its riders.
You need:
soup cube (without glutamate)
carrots
onion
seasonal vegetable – in Winter in Austria this is cabbage, kale and celery
1-2 Mozzarella or slices of cheese
Salami (or any other sausage)
some sorts of Pesto like green (Genovese Pesto) and red (Tomato Pesto)
some leaves of herbs
bread
A day before the party, I start to "flatten the mozzarella" – the typical mozzarella is a soft ball. In this dish we need this lovely white cheese to cut dragons out of it. If you would slice it in its original round shape you can 1-2 dragons out of it. If you flatten it what once was a ball is now something you can cut out slices and later cut out dragons of these slices. If you Mozzarella comes in bags, put the bag behind the bottles, if you get them open, put a mug on top. You can of course take Mozzarella which is already shaped as a block or get some sliced cheese.
We usually cook the soup the very day of the party – you can of course prepare it the day before, store it in the fridge and heat it when the guest arrive. We use seasonal vegetable, in winter that means vegetable that can be stored. We like to use many different vegetables, on the one hand your soup will taste much nicer, we call this a full and round taste – the next advantage lies in the fact, that with many different ingredients it is not so easy to detect single types of vegetable (e.g. if one of your guest happens to dislike carrots). Of course we ask in advance our little guest and their parents if there are allergies, intolerances or severe dislikes to certain foods.After cooking the soup, we take out all the vegetables again and sort them into different post – one for carrots, one for onions, one for the green stuff.
As soon as all our dragon tamers are around the table they get plates or boards and are aloud to cut and decorate their dragons. They made do as they like and will like to eat.
Each one can decide if they would prefer cheese or salami (you could even cut out bread), and can decorate their dragons with herbs and pesto – herbs make great wings and sometimes even flames. The dragon is allowed to take a rest on top of the soup or on a slice of bread.
We make sure to have some more cutters, e.g. for sensitive damsels and vegetarian squires, for kids who don't like to eat a dragon, they can cut out a carrot or a horse shoe, or dragon shoe.When kids are allowed to prepare their lunch they are usually more willing to try something new. If they prepare their lunch it gives the lunch a little bit of adventure. As everyone is allowed to choose what vegetables to put into their soup none has to eat vegetables he or she does not like.
Those who love to cook with kids can bake real dragon cookies in the afternoon – or if you like crafts without messy flour, you can cut out modeling clay with the dragon cutters and each of the kids can make a dragon pendant. These dragon pendants can be painted or adorned with glitter and they can be bag charms for the kindergarten bag or the school bag – and you have wonderfully combined the guest gift and crafting.
29.01.2012. 21:47