rice pud for the whole family

Little Mima is is only 10 months old so I still try to avoid giving her salt, sugar and any processed foods. This is a dairy and sugar free version of rice pudding which is really delicious. 
The fruit puree is from Annabel Karmel's Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner. I also like to use organic dried fruit as the sulphur dioxide or E220 used to preserve the bright orange color of dried apricots can trigger asthma in susceptible babies (I found this out from the book).

DRIED FRUIT PUREE
1. I put a bag of dried fruit (mine are 300g) in a heavy-based saucepan, fill with fresh cold water until covered. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.
2. Then turn the heat off and leave to cool with the lid on.
3. Once cool I blend them to a puree. I put what I am not using in ice cube containers and freeze. It is great as a natural sweetener mixed with greek yogurt.


RICE PUD

INGREDIENTS
100g medium grain white rice
400ml coconut milk
225ml water
175ml dried fruit puree, raisin or apricot
½ vanilla pod cut in two

METHOD
1. Put everything in a heavy-based saucepan.
2. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally.
OR
1. Preheat oven to 150C. Grease a baking dish with sunflower oil.
2. Put everything in the baking dish.
3. Bake for 1¼ hours, stirring occasionally. Leave untouched for the last ½ hour, if you would like a golden skin to form.

soup + scones

Soup is so perfect on wet rainy days, which we've been having so many of lately....  it's just so comforting.

This is Chicken, Leek & Corn soup served with Leek & Mustard Griddle scones.

CHICKEN, LEEK & CORN SOUP

Ingredients

25g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1½ leeks, bottom ¾ washed and sliced (reserve tops for scones, see below)

1 large onion, peeled and diced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

A few sprigs of thyme

1 bay leaf

10 peppercorns

1 chicken breast

1½ litres of chicken homemade or reduced salt chicken stock

50g pearl barley soaked in cold water for 5hrs or overnight

200g corn kernels

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fresh Cream – optional to serve

Method

1. Heat butter and oil in a large pot, add leek and onions, sweat for 10mins. 

2. Add garlic, thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns cook for another 5mins. 

3. Add chicken and pour over the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20mins until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken breasts and set aside to cool. Leave soup to simmer for 1½ hours.

4. Meanwhile simmer the pearl barley in salted water for 20-30 minutes until tender then drain.

5. Drain and rinse corn.  Pull chicken apart and leave in long shreds.

6. Add barley, corn and chicken back into soup and simmer for 20mins.

7. Serve with a dash of cream and warm leek and mustard scones (see recipe below).

I also like to fry up some finely sliced green leek tops from the leftover portion for a vibrant coloured garnish.

I always make these scones when I have the green tops of leeks leftover, whether it be an accompaniment or for lunch by themselves.

Cream enamel bowls featured from Father Rabbit click here to see. 

LEEK & MUSTARD GRIDDLE SCONES

This recipe is from Cuisine magazine issue 141 July 2010 by Celia Harvey

Ingredients

1 leek – top ¼ reserved from soup, finely sliced

125g butter

1 ½ cups flour

1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard

salt and freshly ground black pepper

milk for mixing 

½ teaspoon cumin seeds - optional

Method

1. Preheat oven 200°c bake or 180°c fan bake and line a tray with baking paper.

2. In a small frying pan, quickly fry the leek in 25g of the butter until and darkens and sizzles (the leeks are very flavoursome when cooked until quite dark). Set aside to cool.

3. Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the remaining 100g of butter until the mix has a sandy texture. With fork, mix in the mustard and leeks.

4. Season with salt and pepper and add enough milk to form a soft dough. Do not overmix or they will be tough.

5. Shape into an oblong and cut in slices. I like to sprinkle them with cumin seeds at this stage.

6. Bake for 5-6 minutes they will be quite heavy and crumbly. Best served warm straight from the oven.

snowflakes to the rescue

A few months ago I was talking to a Mum who asked if we had safety glass at floor level. If not she advised we should get stickers to stop any small children not noticing the window. This is something I had never thought about, but living in a late 60's terrace house I am sure we do not, and stickers didn't appeal. Inspired by my neighbors use of tissue paper snowflakes to give some privacy in their kitchen, I decided this was the perfect solution.

I looked on the web for images and started cutting!I'm not going to give you instructions as there are loads out there.

grapefruit + honey soda

today we made grapefruit soda, it's so delicious and simple and everyone enjoys it.

Ingredients
3 grapefruit 
1 tablespoon manuka honey
1/2 cup boiling water
soda or sparkling water


Method
1.Juice grapefruit and strain. 
2. Dissolve honey in the boiling water, add to juice. 
3. Fill 1/3 of a glass with juice and top up with soda.

For the last couple of years I have received a large bag of grapefruit care of Mima's Grannie's grapefruit tree. She isn't all that fond of grapefruit so every year when they ripen they get stripped from the tree and given away. There's something I really love about grapefruit, I remember as a kid dad would give them to us for breakfast sprinkled with brown sugar and grilled for a few minutes.
I still have stores in the pantry of last years batch of marmalade (photo below). This year grapefruit and honey soda will suffice.

tamari almonds

I have been making and enjoying these Tamari Almonds for years. I always have a jar on the go in the pantry as I believe they are the perfect snack. While it is a super simple recipe, everyone who tries them loves them so I thought I should share it. They are something I make by eye, so writing a recipe was not as easy as you would think. I had a look on the internet and found a lot of people have posted recipes for Tamari Almonds so there are a lot of variations out there, if you don't like mine try some one else's recipe.
Almonds are a super food, low in saturated fat but full of the good monounsaturated fats, they contain zero cholesterol and one hand full of almonds contains as much calcium as a quarter cup of milk. I also read recently that they help lactating women produce milk so this makes a super easy and delicious afternoon snack, while breastfeeding. 

Ingredients
750g raw almonds
5 tablespoons of Tamari

Method
1. Pre heat the oven to 180C. Place baking paper and then the almonds on a baking tray.
2. Pour over the Tamari and mix until evenly covered.
3. Roast the almonds for about 15 minutes or until the mixture is dry, stirring once halfway though.
4. Cool and transfer to a jar.

a blanket for moo

This weekend I finally finished my first ever crochet project, a blanket for Moo's bed. Moo loves the purple colour.

I used Freedom 100% wool chunky on size 8mm hook.

Perfect timing as it's pretty cold now being mid July.

My mum taught me the basics during her last stay with us. She taught herself to crochet as a kid so she could make clothes for her dolls. She now does beautiful fine detailed crochet and knitting which I hope to learn from her one day. This is just the start for me. 

rainbow connection : one

Everyone loves a rainbow don't they? We love them, this is our tribute to rainbows.

RAINBOW CUPCAKES

I was inspired to make rainbow cupcakes after a friend showed me a picture of these elaborate pinata cookies which she thought Moo would love. They looked incredible but to be honest the recipe didn't sound too tasty.

So I created my own version, using my old faithful Donna Hay kids' magazine cupcake recipe.

Basic Mix and Melt Vanilla Cupcakes - for 12 standard cupcakes

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups plain flour, sifted

¾ teaspoon baking powder, sifted

1 cup caster sugar

125g butter, melted

2 eggs

¾ cup milk 

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Blue and Pink food colouring

7 cups and teaspoons for mixing colours

1 quantity of chocolate butter icing (see recipe below)

hundreds and thousands (rainbow sprinkles)

Method

1. Preheat oven 160°c fan bake and line cupcake tray with papercases. 

2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar, butter, eggs, milk and vanilla in a large bowl and mix until well combined.

3. Divide cupcake mixture equally between the cups and mix your colours. We did red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink (I know technically pink isn’t in the rainbow but Moo insists it is).

4. Spoon one teaspoon of each colour into the papercases in above order

5. Bake for 20-25mins or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Place cakes on wire rack to cool.

6. Ice and decorate.

Chocolate Butter Icing

70g butter, softened

1 cup icing sugar

¼ cup sifted cocoa

1 tablespoon boiling water

1. Beat butter with electric mixer or beater for 5 minutes.

2. Add Icing sugar and cocoa, water and beat until light and fluffy.