Risotto


If you’ve got 4 kids at home then you don’t have time to stand over the risotto stirring it. So don’t.

Ingredients

1 onion and 3 – 4 garlic cloves

1 mug arborio rice

1 litre fresh stock (I usually use fresh chicken stock)

Bacon, leftover roast meat, or hot smoked salmon

Peas / spinach / leeks / mushrooms / courgettes (any or all)

(generally I make bacon and pea, or leek, salmon and pea)

Parmesan cheese

Method

Cook the onion and garlic in butter until soft. If adding leeks, courgettes or mushrooms then cook them in with the onions (spinach and peas go in at the end). If using bacon then add it to the pan and cook it through before adding the rice. If using leftover roast meat I tend to add it with the rice, if using hot smoked salmon I put it in at the end with the peas.

Add the mug of arborio rice and then immediately cover with stock and put a lid on the pan. The stock can go in cold straight from the fridge. Once it comes to the boil then turn it down to a simmer and let it cook for about 30 mins until the rice has absorbed all the stock. Add the peas and/or spinach just before you finish cooking as these only take a couple of minutes. Stir through some parmesan and have (lots of) extra for serving.

Variations

Fresh chili, roast pumpkin and sage, celery, white wine (in place of some of the stock)

For the kids

The fact that all my four kids like risotto (although they have pretty strong flavour preferences that rarely tie in with each other) leads me to think that risotto must be a kid-friendly meal without much adaption. It is a great way to get fresh chicken stock (magic bone broth) into them. They all have their own strange ways of eating it. Parmesan is loved by 3 out of the 4 but detested as ‘stinky cheese’ by the 4th. Some pick out the peas or the bacon and leave to the end (either because they are the least favourite or the best bit)… it would kind of be a small miracle for 4 kids to sit down and just tuck in without some sort of fannying around though wouldn’t it?

There isn’t necessarily a ‘right’ method…when it comes to food then if is tastes good it works.

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by Amy on August 31, 2012  •  Permalink
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Posted by Amy on August 31, 2012

http://wellykitchen.com/2012/08/31/risotto/

Lamb casserole

Ingredients 

Coconut oil.

Lamb leg steaks (bone in / lean fat on).

Onion / garlic (3 -4 cloves).

Celery / Carrots / Pumpkin / Sweet potato.

Fresh ginger (about a 2cm cube grated)

Spices (to taste and preference) around 1/2 teaspoon : ground cumin, turmeric, cinnamon stick, 3 -4 fresh cardamon pods, 2 x bay leaves, star anise, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder or fresh chillies (although I skip it if making for the kids). Salt / Pepper.

Handful of sultanas.

Stock or water.

Frozen peas.

Method

Heat some coconut oil in a casserole dish and cook onion and garlic until soft. Grate in the fresh ginger and the spices.  Add in lamb steaks and brown on both sides to seal. Add the celery, onion, pumpkin and sweet potato and sultanas. Leave anything out you don’t have and add in any extras that take your fancy (some ideas below)- this casserole is very accommodating .. it will become a curry or a broth upon a whim.

Cover with stock / water or both. Slow cook around 140 – 60 for at least 2 hours. Check it’s not drying out and add more water as needed. Add peas at the end.

Serve with rice / roti / poppadom / raita/ chutney … any or all. Or serve with mash / couscous / quinoa.. there are 365 dinners in the year after all.

Variations

Dried apricots / red lentils / beans / chickpeas.

For the kids

Slow cooked meat generally seems to be popular with young kids. It’s very soft and easy to eat. Adding mild spices I think is a good introduction to different flavours without overwhelming the taste buds. If I go in a little harder on the spice front and add chilli etc then I’ll literally wash the sauce off the kids food.

 

 

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by Amy on August 23, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Casserole
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Posted by Amy on August 23, 2012

http://wellykitchen.com/2012/08/23/lamb-casserole/

Little chocolate, almond and orange cakes

Ingredients

80g dark chocolate (I use Whittakers Dark Ghana)

50g butter

4 eggs

1/2 cup raw sugar

2 cups ground almonds

1 tsp baking soda

Zest and juice of 1 orange

Method

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot water. While it’s melting whisk the eggs with the sugar and then whisk in the ground almonds and orange zest. In a separate bowl mix the orange juice with the baking soda until it froths up. Add to the mixture and then tip in the melted chocolate and butter and beat everything together. Spoon into muffin cases. It makes quite a runny batter and should fill 12 standard muffin cases. Bake at 180 for 15 – 18 minutes until the cakes spring back.

Variations

If you want to keep the recipe as pure as possible and omit any raising agents then these work without the baking soda but the texture will be dramatically different – very dense / solid but still tasty. Fresh ginger works well and they carry chopped fruit well. Pear is particularly good. If you want to skip the orange then switch the baking soda for baking powder. I quite often put some chia seeds in because that gives me the illusion that it is possible to have a chocolate cake that is also a superfood.

 

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by Amy on August 5, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Chocolate cake, Gluten free
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Posted by Amy on August 5, 2012

http://wellykitchen.com/2012/08/05/little-chocolate-almond-and-orange-cakes/

Lunchbox Muffins

 

 

Ingredients

70g soft butter

1/2 (or a little less) cup raw sugar

2 large spoons of full fat natural yogurt (about 1/2 cup)

2 large eggs

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup berries (raspberries / blueberries etc)

Method

Cream the butter and sugar together and then beat in the yogurt. Add the eggs and the flour and baking powder then when all creamed together stir in the berries. Bake in muffin cases at 180 for 18 – 20 minutes. Makes about 8 – 10 standard size muffins.

Variations 

Add chocolate chunks, any other kind of chopped fruit. Switch out 1/2 a cup of the plain  flour for coconut flour or ground almonds which will make the muffins more nutritious but denser and less fluffy. Add around a 1/4 cup of ground seeds such as flax / pumpkin / chia with a little milk if need be to thin out the mix. Switch out some of the sugar for honey.

Kids

Muffins don’t need any adaption for the kids, but when making more nutritious switches then it can be a fine line between delight and rejection as far as the small folk are concerned. I find that if the kids are hungry, and the muffins are coming straight out of the oven fresh, then I can put pretty much anything in them and they will scoff them down. But, if they are eating them in their lunchboxes the day after I bake them, then they like them as close to the original recipe as possible. I tend to make small batches regularly as let’s face it, when it comes to muffins the fresher the better.

 

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by Amy on August 5, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Muffins
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Posted by Amy on August 5, 2012

http://wellykitchen.com/2012/08/05/lunchbox-muffins/

Roast pumpkin and garlic soup

Ingredients:

Pumpkin (I like to buy whole ones and use in a few things throughout the week but if you’re just buying for the soup then around 1/3rd – 1/2 a pumpkin is about right)

Garlic – around 5 – 6 cloves (try and get local rather than imported)

Fresh chicken stock  (about 1 litre )

Sour cream (2 tbsp)

Method :

Cut pumpkin into chunks (skin off)  and put on a baking tray with garlic cloves, slug over a little olive oil, sea salt and pepper and roast at around 180 for 40 mins – 1 hour until soft and caramalised.

Pop the garlic out of it’s skin and transfer with the pumpkin into a saucepan.

Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil.

Add a couple of spoons of sour cream and then blend.

If too thick add a little water.

Variations

Frankly anything goes when it comes to pumpkin soup. If you don’t have time (or inclination) to pre-roast the pumpkin then just stick it into the stock raw and cook it until soft in the pan. Root vegetables all go well , particularly sweet potato, carrot, turnip and parsnip. You can pre-roast them or add them to the stock and simmer until everything is cooked. I also like to add red lentils (just add dry red lentils straight to the stock and simmer for 30 mins or so until they kind of disappear… keep an that there is enough stock as the lentils absorb a lot of water). If you don’t have fresh chicken stock then just use veg stock (made with boiling water and bouillon).

Pumpkin soup carries spices really well. Turmeric will almost be un-noticable flavour-wise but it has lots of health benefits so sling some in.  If the kids are not going to be eating it then I like to add fresh chili or chili powder. Ginger is also a winner but not if you’re going to be adding grated cheese when you serve (which I usually do). If you happen to live in a parsley forest (as we do then fresh parsley makes sense). You can also stick in some spinach at the end (either fresh spinach or the blocks of chopped frozen stuff also work) but bear in mind this will turn the soup green and may be deeply off-putting for the small folk.

Kids

Pumpkin soup is about as kid friendly as soup gets (aside from Heinz tinned tomato which is the god-father of kid friendly soup). That said, sometimes the kids go for it and other times they are less enthusiastic. I tend to employ the basic rule that each kid must eat at least as many spoonfuls as their age (i.e the 6 year old must have 6 spoons). That may not sound much but I find that by the time they’ve had a few spoons then if they like it they keep going until the bowl is gone and if they don’t then frankly I’m not of the disposition to coax them into eating more than a little . Serving it with cheesy fingers (cheese on toast cut into fingers) also helps. As does a stack of grated cheese and some crispy bacon.

Other stuff about pumpkin soup

Cutting up a pumpkin is tedious stuff. I’ve tried roasting the thing whole and scooping out the flesh but I found the scooping out of the flesh bit to be more of a palava than chopping it up in the first place (that said, I know some people like this method).

When it comes to pumpkin then vibrant orange is best (or so I heard some chef who’s in the know about this stuff say) but how you know the colour of the inside when you’re buying it whole I have no idea.

Farmers markets are a great place to get whole pumpkins. If you’re in Welly then check out Hill Street Farmer’s Market on a Saturday morning.

1 Comment
by Amy on August 3, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Soup

Posted by Amy on August 3, 2012

http://wellykitchen.com/2012/08/03/hello-world/

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