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!

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!

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.

Potato Parmesan Rosti

It’s the day before my Abel & Cole veg box delivery so I went through the fridge to figure out what need to be used up. A mountain of potatoes, a few carrots and a zucchini. So where to from there – ah, the humble potato rosti. As the Imp is in a serious potato craze at the moment, these are sure to meet with his approval.

Potato Parmesan Rosti

450g potatoes

1 medium zucchini

2 medium carrots

handful grated parmesan

1 small onion

olive oil

tablespoon butter

Grate zucchini, carrot, potato and squeeze excess moisture out and put into large bowl. Mix in grated parmesan. Finely chop onion and fry for a few minutes in butter and a drizzle of oil. Add to potato mixture and mix well. Spoon balls of mixture onto baking tray and slightly flatten. Bake in 200 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn and bake a further 10 minutes. Makes about 12.

Oh, they are in the oven now and I’m counting down the minutes!

Ginger’s Muesli Bars

My lovely sleep deprived friend, Gingerninja at Sleep is for the Weak makes a museli bar which she claims is much better than the porridge pancakes I keep making for breakfast and which the Imp never eats.

Soak some chopped apricots, figs, raisins, oats and desicated coconut in apple juice for a few hours. Put it in a saucepan with a nob of butter and cook for a few minutes then put in a baking tray and cook for about 20 mins. You will have to experiment with quantities but they’re lovely.

I can’t wait to make it!

Your leftover roasted beetroot …

 

Time is often of the essence in cooking for babies, so take last nights roasted beetroot leftovers, and make a whole new dish. This is wonderful, and so easy.

Beetroot pasta

3 or 4 roasted beetroots, see below a few entries ago

2 tablespoons olive oil

400g pasta

juice of half a lemon

200 mL single cream

1/2 cup parmesan

handful of toasted pine nuts

bunch of fresh basil

Peel beetroot and cut into chunks. Heat oil and saute garlic in a pan for a few minutes. Add beetroot, cook a few more minutes. Stir in lemon juice, lower heat and add cream, cook for 2 minutes until just hot. Combine beetroot mixture and cooked pasta, top with parmesan and basil (and toasted pine nuts for momma).

Take 3 Zucchinis …

Here is my failsafe recipe that can be thrown together very quickly and baked in the oven. It’s even quicker if you’ve got a grater attachment on your magimix. And a dishwasher. If you don’t please leave the dishes for your partner

Oh and where I come from, they call courgettes zucchinis …

Courgette/Zucchini Pie (it’s like a frittata, but easier)

3 courgettes/zucchinis, grated

1 large onion, chopped

1 cup grated cheese

1 cup self raising flour

5 eggs

1/2 cup olive oil

pepper

Mix oil, eggs and pepper then stir into mixed courgette/zucchini, onion cheese and flour. Pour into greased baking dish and bake in moderate oven.

That’s seriously it. It takes about 45 mins to bake.

Great for your baby as long as they are ok with eggs. Mine had a bit of a reaction so I took some of the pre-egg mixture, added some ricotta and put a few spoons in the muffin tin. Worked brilliantly.

Probably not a first food unless your baby is particularly dextrous, but by 8 months it is probably fine.

I served my dinner with leaves and sliced radishes. Yum!