inner pickle

noodle heads

For someone that talks a lot about food it might surprise you that I have a lot of trouble feeding my middle child. 

I was spoilt by Henry who at two made me one of those incredibly annoying mothers who gave their child steamed broccoli to snack on, and he ate it. He's a terrific eater. Lots of fruit and carrot sticks and organic apricots and ham and cheese wraps. Easy. 

Not so much the four year old. 

And dinner is the hardest. So many things she claims she doesn't like. Whole reward charts stickered with incentives just to try something (not even something new. You've had risotto a hundred times child, what's the problem?!). 

And the things she will eat? Not in my from-scratch repertoire. She loves beef nachos. (I have never attempted corn chips.) She loves sausages and mashed potato. (I've never made sausage.) And she loves chicken noodles. (Am currently googling recipes for udon noodles.) 

 

I managed to grab this photo in between her wolfing this dish down. Unfamiliar as I am to her eating dinner at all. 

 

 

Tilly's chicken noodles

2 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp water

1 cup peas

1 cup corn

approx 2 cups shredded cooked chicken

approx 500g fresh udon noodles

 

Heat the oil in the wok then add the oyster sauce and stir till simmering. Add the water, the vegetables and the chicken and when the veggies are cooked stir through the noodles and cook for a further two minutes. 

Serve to reluctant youngsters. 

You never know your luck.

xxx

quick and easy Frittata recipe

I wonder what your go-to recipes are? 

Mine all changed when I gradually turned vegetarian during pregnancy and found I just couldn't  serve up sausages or spaghetti bolognaise or steamed chicken, which the kids would always eat. 

We've expanded our repertoire and I now have a good handful of dinners I know the kids will eat without argument. You know, the dinner you want to make after you've had a run of meals where all the small people are sitting around saying "I'm not a fan of this." (My Mum taught them this last time she stayed, after some small person looked at their dinner plate and said "I hate this". It's a much better put down, I find!)

On the go-to list we have lentil bolognese, pumpkin soup and pasta baked in béchamel with grated carrot and zucchini. They love bean nachos, bean-based shepherds pie, different types of risotto and homemade pizzas. 

I love a quick egg-based dinner. Frittata, omelette, scrambled eggs, boiled eggs with toast soldiers. Only one smallie likes eggs - Henry doesn't 'do' eggs. Shame. 

Nonetheless, last night was a go-to dinner: cauliflower soup. And for those who like eggs: frittata. Super quick and totally delicious. 

Frittata

Ingredients:

4 eggs

half cup milk

half cup grated cheese

1 onion, finely chopped

3 medium potatoes

handful of cherry tomatos, halved

bunch of asparagus

salt and pepper

 

Method:

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, milk and cheese. Add the onion. 

Peel, slice and cook your potatoes (I steam mine). 

Pour the egg mix into a greased baking dish and lay the cooked potatoes on top. Place the tomoatos over the top and lie the asparagus on top too. Season. 

Cook in a moderate oven (180C) for about 20 mins or until golden and set firm. 

 

Do you have dinners that there are no arguments about at your place?

(We should start a database!)

xxx 

 

P.S. The comments yesterday were (again) the best thing about the post. So many thoughtful ideas - if you haven't read them, go back! You are the most intelligent and interesting readers out there. Thank you. xx

high chai

 

Hello! Back in August I sent out a call for chai recipes here - noting my devotedness to the drink and hoping to be flooded with fabulous recipes (aka brownies, for which I have more recipes than I'll ever be able to cook. Or eat.)

Surprisingly (to me) you lot aren't as enamoured of chai as I am. 

In fact, I got only one recipe back. LUCKY, it was perfect. 

It was from my sister Naomi who lives in Germany, and she got it from her guy at the Asian supermarket in Oberursel who is actually from Calcutta and therefore knows his chai.

And so he does.

This stuff rocks.

 

CHAI

Ingredients:

4 Cardamon pods

4 cloves

1/3 cinnamon stick

1 tsp loose tea (ideally Sri Lankan)

2cm small piece of fresh ginger

2/3 cup milk

2/3 cup water

Method:

Bash cardamon and cloves together, in a mortar and pestle if you have one or with a rolling pin or tin of baked beans if you don't.

Put cardamon, cloves and the cinnamon into the saucepan with the tea, the ginger (also bashed up) and then the water and milk. Simmer on low for about half and hour then strain and drink. Personally I think it needs a teaspoon of sugar at the end too but I don't know if that's legit. A bit soulless without the sugar.

So that's one more item off my 20 New Things list which is still dreadfully FULL given I'm s'posed to have completed it by the end of this month...

Well, let's give the rest of them a red hot go, shall we?

xxx

tea time

OK YOU LOT.

Now I know you're reading this, because I get stats. And I even get lots of lovely emails from people who want to chat but don't want to comment on the blog. I'm really not sure why. I read every comment and love it love it love it.

One lovely friend who obviously wishes to stay nameless refers to herself as a cyber voyeur. No commenting rule.

But this is important. 

I was talking to my marvellous workmate Ben today (Hi Benoss) and we were talking about chai. My FAVOURITE drink. (After shiraz.)

All tea is a journey to peacefulness, frankly. You can imagine it's youthful start here:

Handpicked into baskets, trekking along these rows here:

*sigh* Is the kettle on yet?

And CHAI. Well. Chai has that fantastic spicy pepperyness that is a whole other world of tea fabulousness.

I drink chai and am SO RELAXED I look just like this:

Really. It's a miracle.

No, seriously, I want, I need, chai recipes. Please?? The best chai I've ever had was at Badde Manors cafe in Glebe and I'd swap a small child for that particular recipe. 

So if any of you non-commenters out there have any spicy indian tea recipes, please let's have them!

Meanwhile, it's English Breakfast.

xxx

Thanks to Microsoft clip art for the pics today!!