06/07/2010 12:43:00
Cool Berry Smoothie With Tofu
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This recipe was taken from the box of Kids Kitchen recipes sent by Fi Bird, the same one that the tomato tarts came from.
The children picked this out straight away as they are berry fans and have been making smoothies at school and consider themselves aficionados!
I liked the look of it because it had the twist of being creamed by tofu rather than milk. Which intrigued me. |
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Ingredients
3 oranges (to make 150ml juice)
1 large passion fruit (we couldn't find one so we bought a peach)
1 medium banana
125g tofu
300g frozen berries
runny honey (optional)
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The first step was to get the juice out of the oranges. Of course you could use carton juice if you are in a hurry and have some in, but our two really enjoyed squeezing the juice. They got about 80% of the juice out and then I squeezed the last bits out of each half, but by the end they were getting the hang of it. Their Dad's legendary grip strength has not quite kicked in yet.
The recipe gets you to cut the passion fruit in half and take out the juice, pulp and seeds. As we had a peach, we just stoned it and roughly cut it up.
Then you peel the banana and cut it into a few pieces. You may have noticed we missed this off our ingredients photo because we had forgotten it. We ran to the village shop halfway through to get it.
The tofu was a bit of a revelation to the kids. Although they have eaten it in stir fries a couple of times, and certainly hidden in things, they have never actually seen it before being cooked. They thought the liquid in the packet was gross. I concur. And they liked the wobble of it. I suggested they gently touch it to see the texture but then made the mistake of going to get the knives and this is what they interpreted as gently...
Oh well never mind. Anyway then you have to cut up the tofu in to smallish pieces, which we did. My only issue with this recipe is that it is a small amount of tofu and most shops sell in larger packs so it would be wise to think about what you are going to do with the rest. We did something indian with it. I know you can freeze it but then it's no good for smoothies because it goes more chewy. So anyway, that's one to think about when you're doing your shopping list. I did like that tofu presented a great opportunity to practice knife skills without risk. They could use a sharp dinner knife and practice a mixture of sawing and pressing without me having to hover and help.
Then you lob everything into the blender and blend. The berries can stain a bit so be careful with clothes. We used raspberries frozen from the garden last year. The recipe does warn you that because the fruit is frozen the blender may move about a bit, which is good advice. The kids took it in turns to press the buttons.
The smoothie is quite thick when it comes out. You can of course water it down with juice, water or crushed ice. The recipe also suggests optional honey at the end. Anna liked it better without and Jacob better with.
The Verdict
7/10 Anna (6) "It's ok but I would like it better with strawberries. I don't like raspberries that much."
9/10 Jacob (8) "Yummy. I could drink loads of this. I like the raspberries."
7/10 Mom "In retrospect a mix of berries might have been better for our two. Nice texture though and I like that it has some protein in so it will keep them full for longer. A proper snack rather than a quick refresher."
9/10 Dad "I had this when I came in from work on a hot day. It was exactly what I needed. Quenched my thirst a bit because of the icy berries and because it's dead healthy I felt happy and smug at the same time."
17/06/2010 11:23:00
Filo Fish Fingers
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This recipe was taken from the fab book "Cooking With Kids" by Erin and Tatum Quon.
I liked the idea of making a tartare sauce from scratch, something I must admit I have never done.
And because everything nuggetty or fingery seems to be rolled in breadcrumbs, the idea of crunchy filo was a welcome change. |
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The Recipe
4 sheets of frozen filo dough (we had a pack of 6 sheets so we used them all)
75g melted butter
250g white fish fillets cut into 8 pieces (or we used 300g cut into 12 to use up the filo)
125ml mayo
1/4 stalk celery
2 tbsp gherkin relish (we didn't have any but we did have some pickled gherkins so we used them instead)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt (we used half this because we don't like salt very much)
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
First of all I had to lay out a sheet of filo and cut it in half to get two rough squares rather than a long oblong. I did this bit because I was worried it might drag and crumple if the knife hand was too tentative, but in retrospect Jacob probably could have handled it and I would leave it to him next time.
Then Jacob brushed the sheet with melted butter. This was a lot of fun.
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Then the fish pieces were placed on to the filo sheet and rolled as in the pictures below, first folding in the sides and then folding up in a roll. A bit of melted butter on the join at the end is there to help it hold together. The sheets in the book were very neat but ours were a bit raggedy due to the fact that they were a bit sticky when they defrosted. Morrisons seem to find it impossible not to overstock their freezers and everything always has an air of the defrosted-and-refrozen about them. Anyway it doesn't matter because the raggedy bits get rolled inside the fish finger.
We used pangasius fish from a sustainable farm, which we got from a fish delivery service, we haven't had it before and it's not any cheaper than cod but it has a brilliant cod like firm texture. But pollock would do just as well or of course cod, if you're not into the whole sustainable fishing thing.
The recipe includes a cute idea of sticking a lolly stick into the fish fingers before cooking, but we didn't do that, because frankly I was too tight fisted to buy them and didn't think the kids would appreciate them that much. If they had been younger I'd have done that, very sweet idea and stops them holding hot parcels when eating. We cooked them in the oven on a baking tray for about 15-20 minutes at 190 degrees C.
Then we made the tartare sauce. It's great, you just lob all the ingredients into the food processor (we used the little bowl as the quantities weren't huge). You could equally chop the celery and gherkins (if you don't have relish) up really finely and just mix in a bowl. But we used the mixer so Jacob could do it all. Couldn't have been easier.
That's all folks! For something which looks quite fancy for a fish finger, it's very easy and fun to make. We loved it and it came out really well. We're definitely making this again.
The Verdict
6/10 Anna (6) “I quite like the crunchy pastry but I am not keen on it with fish.”
8/10 Jacob (8) “Very hot when it comes out, it fills you up. It’s fishy but when you have it
with the tartare sauce it’s like KABOOM in your mouth.”
8/10 Mom "Fun to make and pretty successful. Nice change from breadcrumbs. Dipping in
the tartare sauce makes it much more interesting."
8/10 Dad "Great sauce, good crunch."
18/05/2010 13:09:00
Easy Peasy Sponge Cake
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This recipe comes from Dorling Kindersley's Children's Baking Book.
I wanted to try it because it's a 'lob everything in and mix' recipe which anyone can do.
The recipe says that you can use the same mixture for either a Victoria style sandwich or individual fairy cakes. |
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The Recipe
175g softened butter
175g sugar
3 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
175g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
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This recipe is frankly so easy and quick that you must remember to put the oven on to preheat before you start or it won't stand a chance of warming up enough. The oven should be at 180 degrees C (Gas Mark 4).
The only faintly arduous thing in the recipe is making sure your butter is softened. Mine wasn't so I had to cube it and then do the Dance Of The Microwave Butter Soften, opening the door so often to stop it melting that it feels like you're going backwards in time.
Anyway Anna was my cook for the day and she did everything in this recipe with no help, except for helping her to level the tablespoon of baking powder. She put the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla into the bowl. then sifted the flour and baking powder over the top. Then mixed. No creaming the butter and sugar, no folding in, just lob it all in and mix. I did advise her to start the mixer on a very low setting and build up so all the flour didn't fly everywhere but that was the limit of the technical expertise needed.
Then we divided the mixture between two greased sandwich tins and cooked for 25 minutes, until they were springy, and took them out to cool.
The recipe also gives you instructions to fill the two layers with jam and buttercream. So Anna made the buttercream with 50g softened butter, 125g icing sugar, 1/2tsp vanilla extract and 2 tsp of milk.
It was quite a lot of buttercream for a slim cake and a little on the sweet side, but no one complained! We did choose damson jam instead of strawberry to combat the sweetness though.
The cake came out very nicely. Not big and fluffy like a Victoria sponge, but then I don't like those made-of-air-and-dust cakes. They're gone too quick and the kids manage to spread them over the entire universe. This was a sweet, eggy, sponge cake which took the filling well and was easy to make.
The Verdict
10/10 Anna (6) "As nice as the chocolate cake." (which to the uninitiated is like me saying "as good as Leeroy Jethro Gibbs", that is, nigh on perfect)
9/10 Jacob (8) "Really nice. Sticks to the top of my mouth."
8/10 Dad "Really really good" Said through a mouthful of cake. Dad is obsessed with Victoria sponge cakes so this is praise indeed.
8/10 Mom "Very tasty sponge, not just there to carry the filling. REALLY easy to make. Filling a little sweet, but the sponge has a nice slight sugary crunch on the browned top. Could make this often."
