He eats! (Zucchini cheesy rosti)

I grated zucchini, carrot and cheese, mixed with finely chopped onion and garlic, bound with a little olive oil and flour, seasoned with a little pepper and baked them in my mini muffin tin. You could just as well put them in little rounds on a tray and bake. I can’t say the quantities would be that important, just go for a thickish conistency at the end. The cheese went all melty, but once they cooled down they were cute little shapes. The Imp refused them yesterday, but ate two for dinner today – hooray!

Finger food for little pincers

Ok, sorry I haven’t given you any fab recipes for a bit, but the Imp is going through an obsession with his pincer grip. The only things he’ll seriously think about eating are peas and sultanas. I don’t know if anyone has any good recipes for just peas and sultanas. I’m stumped. He did eat some spaghetti the other day (with peas of course), but most everything else is getting the off-the-tray-and-onto-the-floor treatment. Guess I’ll just ride this one out …

Salmon Fishcakes

Ok, we all know that salmon is super high in wonderful omega-3 essential fatty acids, so gooooood for little developing brains, so while you can really make fishcakes with a lot of different types of fish, salmon is my fish of choice.

2 pieces of salmon, skinned

5 medium potatoes

1 bunch coriander, finely chopped

peas (frozen if you wish, no problem)

1 tsp grated lemon rind

1 tblsp lemon juice

flour as you need

breadcrumbs

Cook the salmon as you like, pan fry or bake, you can leave it slightly underdone as it will be cooked again later.

Steam to the potatoes and mash them.

Pull the salmon into flakes and mix all ingredients except breadcrumbs. Add a little flour if the mixture seems too wet. Form into patties with your hands and dip into breadcrumbs. Pan fry or bake. You can freeze these for handy no fuss dinners and lunches.

Monkfish Curry Rice

A word of warning.

Tumeric.

Does.

Stain.

With napisan on hand you can bravely give this to your little fingers to munch on and shove in their mouth as they deem appropriate (all etiquette aside). Hold the chilis for the adults though, unless your little one shows a taste for a lil more spice.

1 kg white fish such as the lovely monkfish (I would also recommend swordfish apart from its high mercury content, so not so good for little Imps unfortunately) cut into largish chunks

2 tsp tumeric

5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

400mL coconut milk

2 onions, cut into chunky pieces

4 potatoes, chopped into baby friendly pieces

1 small pumpkin/butternut squash, again in baby friendly pieces

1 tablespoon tamarind paste

1 green chili

a little oil

500mL water or stock

Heat oil and cook onions about 5 minutes until softened. Add the ginger, cumin, tumeric and coriander seeds and fry with the onions on low heat for a few more minutes. Add the potato and pumpkin/squash and mix well. Then pour in the coconut milk, add tamarind paste and add the water/stock and cook until potato and pumpkin are soft. When the pumpkin and potato are almost done, add the fish and cook around 5 minutes or so.

Serve with rice and topped with coriander (and serve with chopped chillies for the heat lovers)

(you can also use any other veg on hand in the curry, I used some lovely sugar snap peas and carrots, I imagine green beans would work really well too ;))

Vegie-Cheese Mini Muffins

250g grated carrot and courgette (and/or any other vegetable taking your fancy!)

125g cheese, grated

50g breadcrumbs

2  tbsp water

2  tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pour boiling water over grated vegetables and leave for 10 minutes, then drain.
Combine all the ingredients and mix well.
Spoon the mixture in mini muffin tin, or spoon blobs onto greased baking tray and bake in moderate oven for 20-25 minutes.

Mono- and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids?? (aka Recipe for Fish Fingers)

I read the ingredients of the supermarket fish fingers as: Cod fillet (58%), crumb coating Crumb coating contains wheat flour, palm oil, water, potato starch, wheat starch, salt, yeast, turmeric, mustard powder, natural colours paprika extract and curcumin, pepper extract, emulsifier mono- and diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids.

Anyway, there were too many words in that last line that I had no idea about, so I though I’d go about making my own instead.

Amberjee’s Fish Fingers

400 g fish

120 g breadcrumbs

2 Tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

squeeze of lemon juice

tsp dried herbs like thyme, oregano etc.

3 tablespoons plain flour

olive oil

Stick it all in a blender apart from breadcrumbs and olive oil. Add a little olive oil to bind if mixture is too dry. Shape mixture into fingers with your hands. Roll them in breadcrumbs and place on a plate or foil in the fridge for a half hour or longer. Then heat some oil in a frying pan and pan fry until golden. Yum!

Roast Chicken, Potato and Cherry Tomatoes

What a wonderful dish and the Imp gobbled it down, as did I.

8 chicken thighs, bone removed (this is even better if you have a friendly butcher who will do the work for you!)

10 medium potatoes, scrubbed clean

1-2 punnets cherry tomatoes, or use a mix of interesting looking tomatoes if you get to a decent market

olive oil

bunch of fresh thyme

Boil the potatoes until just soft, drain and push down with your thumb so they crack apart a little. Brown the chicken in a frying pan for a few minutes. Score one end of the tomatoes and boil them for a minute. The skins will easily peel off now. Arrange the chicken, potatoes and tomatoes in a roasting dish. In a mortar and pestle, crush up the fresh thyme, then you can add some olive oil to make a thyme oil infusion kind of thing. Pour this over your roast and put in a medium oven for around 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes brown on top.

The simple things in the oven

You don’t have to get all fancy when it comes to feeding your little one finger food. Personally I think one of the tastiest treats is your favourite vegetable rubbed in olive oil and left in the oven for a bit. Either cut your veg into chip shapes or manageable chunks, rub with a little oil, sprinkle with herbs if you wish. No salt for the little people, you can add yours later.

Try potato, pumpkin (butternut squash), summer squash, sweet potato, tomatoes (though can get messy), beetroot, parsnip, carrots, even kohlrabi!

You can usually tell when they are cooked, as they start to smell delicious and make your mouth water.

On how many ice cubes …

I was at a stay and play session this morning. I must have gotten there too early, as at the beginning there were only 2 mums (and babies) there. So I got caught in the middle of the age old weaning conversation between the mum of a 5 1/2 month old and the mum of a 6 month old. The first mum was very concerned as her daughter had been eating a whole ice cube for the past week for every meal. And this morning she didn’t eat so much as a teaspoon. Mum number 2 gave a fascinating expose about the timing of meals and how to fit naps and milk around that. Apparently I’m failing as a mum because I don’t give lunch on the dot of 12.00. Well sometimes I might. Or it might be the dot of 1.00. Or the dot of 1.27. Well, you get the picture.

Mum number 1 was also saying that she didn’t know how much to feed her daughter. Apparently her health visitor said to feed as much as she would eat. Sounds sensible to me. But mum wasn’t happy with that. She wanted a breakdown of how many teaspoons, how many icecubes.

Sometimes the only way I know how much the Imp has actually eaten is by the contents of the next day’s nappies. Sometimes I’ve thought that he ate something in it’s entirety, only to find it hidden in a groove in the highchair or pram when cleaning up later. I do have those moments of maybe-if-my-baby-ate-my-solids-he-would-sleep-through-the-night but then I slap myself back to reality.

I like to watch the Imp playing with his food, exploring the textures and consistencies. And sometimes he even eats those things with their fabulous textures and consistencies, but the exploration is just as important as the eating – I try not to lose sight of that.

Like they say, until they’re one, it’s just for fun. What happens after they’re one is I suppose, anyone’s guess.

Stuffed Summer Squash

At the farmers markets this morning the bright sun-yellow summer squash became irresistable to me. I bought a handful, but now I regret not buying more. Regret not, as there is always next week! I made these stuffed summer squash and they are a little more-ish… for myself as much as for the Imp.

6 medium summer squash

1 medium carrot

1/2 onion

1/2 cup grated cheese

1 clove garlic

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Boil the squash and carrot for about 10 minutes until they are only slightly tender. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the middle, so the squash skins form a neat little case. Chop onion, carrot and garlic very finely. Fry them with a little oil. Add in chopped squash flesh that you have scooped out and saute a few minutes. Remove from heat and mix together with cheese and breadcrumbs. Put the squash cases onto a baking tray and spoon the mixture into the squash cases. You can sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs if you wish. Bake in medium oven about 20 minutes.

Enjoy.