Baby Led Weaning

At least this time he admits to copying it… I have to say that I can’t imagine making a mousakka with mince now so I do know what he means. And we do love a lentil on this site. Personally I’d want to have a look at the salt content of the cans but of course you could just use dried ones, and I tend to add salt/soy sauce to taste. Puy lentils take bout 30 mins to cook from raw so I’m guessing brown lentils are about the same.

Lentil Bolognese

This is based on a Carol Timperley recipe this one. Makes a decent quantity so you can put some aside for your little one and then season up the remainder a bit more for adult palates. We love this and there’s no way I would make one with mince now.

Makes 8 adult portions

Gently fry:

1 x large chopped onion
1 or 2 chopped carrots
1 or 2 sticks of celery
1 x red pepper
2 cloves of garlic
oregano
bay leaf

Then add chopped mushrooms. Once they wilt a bit, add:

tomato puree
150ml red wine
15 ml soy sauce
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 cans brown lentils (or about 800g).
Parsley.

Let it all come to the boil for a bit (this will burn off the alcohol), then cover, turn down, simmer for 40 mins

Blend to consistency you want – nice to have some bits left in.

Have found it quite useful to serve in giant penne – you can get them really quite big (and therefore easier to grasp!) – and then kind of fill them with the bolognese, quite a lot goes in easilly this way, although if you’re expecting no mess, think again.

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See, there’s nothing wrong with an easy recipe, is there? I have a similar one that I rather pompously call Chicken Harissa… can you guess how it is made?

“I made this up the other night out of desperation to make something tempting…..not sure it’s really classed as a recipe though, due to lack of ingredients and processes – just how I like it!

Chicken Pesto

Smear pesto over chicken – if you have time to marinate for a couple of hours, bonus! – and cook in a griddle pan, although grill would probably work just as well.

Bubs gobbled this up, and DH declared it a new favourite!”

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See, there’s nothing wrong with an easy recipe, is there? I have a similar one that I rather pompously call Chicken Harissa… can you guess how it is made?

“I made this up the other night out of desperation to make something tempting…..not sure it’s really classed as a recipe though, due to lack of ingredients and processes – just how I like it!

Chicken Pesto

Smear pesto over chicken – if you have time to marinate for a couple of hours, bonus! – and cook in a griddle pan, although grill would probably work just as well.

Bubs gobbled this up, and DH declared it a new favourite!”

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“These are a bit of a BLW work-in-progress – they don’t hold together like potato type fishcakes, but they are lovely – the Nome liked them at lot, but I reckon they’d be better for older babies who are a bit less interested in the Jackson Pollock approach to eating. Anyway, adapted from Nigel Slater’s “Appetite”. I use 2 biggish fillets of rainbow trout to make enough for me, my husband and the Nome. The seasonings vary every time I make them, depending on what I’ve got in the house. I’d say coriander and lime were my favourite basics.

Put your choice of flavourings into a blender (if you have one! Pestle and mortar may work…). I wouldn’t use ALL of these, necessarily:
2 spring onions OR 1 shallot OR ½ an onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 or 2 chillies (I put these in after I’d mixed the rest and taken some out for Nome. You may be braver)
A couple of lime leaves or I stalk of lemongrass, outer leaves removed, and roughly chopped OR the zest of 1 lime
Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Handful of coriander leaves

Blend to a coarse sludge – I added a bit of lime juice first when making this for Nome, as I didn’t want her to get a sudden bite of ginger, say, so I wanted a smoother blend. Mix in a tablespoon of Thai fish sauce (I know it’s salty, but it’s really really good in this).

Empty this into a bowl. Roughly chop the fish, and then put it in the blender and blend to a coarse paste. Mix with the seasoning paste, and shape into small cakes, using floured hands. I think they’re probably best chilled for a while here, to help them hold together. Fry on both sides in vegetable oil or similar until golden brown.

I tried to make sticky coconut rice with this – wasn’t sticky enough, so our kitchen floor was covered, but what she did get it she seemed to enjoy.

Would be grateful to hear of any modifications people make to make these more blw-friendly.”

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“These are a bit of a BLW work-in-progress – they don’t hold together like potato type fishcakes, but they are lovely – the Nome liked them at lot, but I reckon they’d be better for older babies who are a bit less interested in the Jackson Pollock approach to eating. Anyway, adapted from Nigel Slater’s “Appetite”. I use 2 biggish fillets of rainbow trout to make enough for me, my husband and the Nome. The seasonings vary every time I make them, depending on what I’ve got in the house. I’d say coriander and lime were my favourite basics.

Put your choice of flavourings into a blender (if you have one! Pestle and mortar may work…). I wouldn’t use ALL of these, necessarily:
2 spring onions OR 1 shallot OR ½ an onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 or 2 chillies (I put these in after I’d mixed the rest and taken some out for Nome. You may be braver)
A couple of lime leaves or I stalk of lemongrass, outer leaves removed, and roughly chopped OR the zest of 1 lime
Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Handful of coriander leaves

Blend to a coarse sludge – I added a bit of lime juice first when making this for Nome, as I didn’t want her to get a sudden bite of ginger, say, so I wanted a smoother blend. Mix in a tablespoon of Thai fish sauce (I know it’s salty, but it’s really really good in this).

Empty this into a bowl. Roughly chop the fish, and then put it in the blender and blend to a coarse paste. Mix with the seasoning paste, and shape into small cakes, using floured hands. I think they’re probably best chilled for a while here, to help them hold together. Fry on both sides in vegetable oil or similar until golden brown.

I tried to make sticky coconut rice with this – wasn’t sticky enough, so our kitchen floor was covered, but what she did get it she seemed to enjoy.

Would be grateful to hear of any modifications people make to make these more blw-friendly.”

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I call these turkey twizzlers and madam likes them with pumpkin wedges….. eggfree too so good for allergies.

I mix a handful of minced turkey with some apple and pear (uncooked so I mash the pear till it’s quite smooth but the apple chopped really finely till it’s kinda shredded), half a teaspoon of cinnamon and rolled the mixture into some sausage shapes (she has them about the size of a chipolata).

Stick em on the George Forman (could grill or ovenbake) for about 20 minutes until very well browned. I leave them to cool for aaages and she eats them cold. They freeze really well too so I normally cook extras.

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Ingredients
2 x 400g packs of lamb mince
2 bags of baby leaf spinach
2 tins chopped tomatoes
3 peppers
2 onions
lasagne pasta sheets
some grated cheddar
cheese sauce packet
a few chives
squidge of tomato puree

Chop and gently fry the peppers and onions. Remove from the pan, (a VERY big pan), and then brown the mince. Replace the peppers and onions and a bag of the spinache, both tins of tomatoes and the squidge of puree. I usually add a bit of cayenne pepper or chilli powder too at this point.
Let it all simmer and make up your cheese sauce and grate the cheddar.

Grease a huge lasagne type baking thing (I have a big oval glass one that lets me see my layers).
Place pasta sheets followed by mince mixture then the raw spinach. Follow for two or three layers.
Pour the cheese sauce on top followed by the grated cheddar, a few spinach leaves for decoration and some chives.

Place in the oven for a few hours on about 180. (or when it looks done, just test with a fork).

I always make one this big so that I can freeze portions for dd2 as it’s her favourite.

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Because Elizabeth took a look at the recipe section of this blog and thought ‘you know what it needs? More recipes involving pulses, that’s what…’

We are forever in her debt, of course. All the more so because this is a recipe that she actually made Before Having A Baby, which is promising in the extreme.

“These are really delicious, we ate them way before baby came along, but they are nice and easy BLW’ing type patties.

2 tins red kidney beans
1 leek
parsley
around 100g breadcrumbs
1 beaten egg
100g butter
2 or 3 garlic cloves

Beat together the butter, crushed garlic and a handful of parsley to make garlic butter. Officially you are then supposed to shape it into a roll and chill it, but I never bother with that stage!

Slice the leek thinly and saute gently for 5-6 minutes until very soft

In the meantime, drain and mash the kidney beans in a bowl or whizz them up in a food processor and mix together with half of the breadcrumbs. Add to the pan and heat through.

Take the mixture off the heat. For an adult-sized portion, divide this into 4 large balls – for baby ones obviously make them smaller! Stick your finger into the middle of each ball and fill the hole with as much garlic butter as you can pack in. Squeeze the sides of the hole together over the butter. I usually then squash the balls to make them more of a pattie shape and dip them in beaten egg, then coat in breadcrumbs. For extra crispy ones, repeat for another layer. You can then fry them if you like, but they are equally as good baked in the oven (around 200 degrees) for about 15 minutes or until brown and crispy. They also freeze really well and cook from frozen if you make them into quite a flat shape.”

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Because Elizabeth took a look at the recipe section of this blog and thought ‘you know what it needs? More recipes involving pulses, that’s what…’

We are forever in her debt, of course. All the more so because this is a recipe that she actually made Before Having A Baby, which is promising in the extreme.

“These are really delicious, we ate them way before baby came along, but they are nice and easy BLW’ing type patties.

2 tins red kidney beans
1 leek
parsley
around 100g breadcrumbs
1 beaten egg
100g butter
2 or 3 garlic cloves

Beat together the butter, crushed garlic and a handful of parsley to make garlic butter. Officially you are then supposed to shape it into a roll and chill it, but I never bother with that stage!

Slice the leek thinly and saute gently for 5-6 minutes until very soft

In the meantime, drain and mash the kidney beans in a bowl or whizz them up in a food processor and mix together with half of the breadcrumbs. Add to the pan and heat through.

Take the mixture off the heat. For an adult-sized portion, divide this into 4 large balls – for baby ones obviously make them smaller! Stick your finger into the middle of each ball and fill the hole with as much garlic butter as you can pack in. Squeeze the sides of the hole together over the butter. I usually then squash the balls to make them more of a pattie shape and dip them in beaten egg, then coat in breadcrumbs. For extra crispy ones, repeat for another layer. You can then fry them if you like, but they are equally as good baked in the oven (around 200 degrees) for about 15 minutes or until brown and crispy. They also freeze really well and cook from frozen if you make them into quite a flat shape.”

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Make this, honestly, just make it. It’s sooooo nice. And this recipe generally makes too much sauce so there’s always some to freeze and serve to the baby with pasta shells on those days when the take-away menus are winking at you and you’d rather open your wrists than cook another family meal…

Okay, first things first I am a bit rubbish with measurements. What we’re aiming for with the sauce is a bolognese-y type consistency and apart from that I make this recipe when I find myself with a big tub of plain yoghurt to use up. It’s all storecupboard stuff. It looks like a lot of work but it isn’t, it’s just that I’m useless at writing recipes. 5 mins prep of the sauce and 30 mins cooking. Then walk away and leave it in the oven for 40-ish.

1/2 a pack of Puy lentils, (which I reckon is about 250g)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 or two carrots
1 or two sticks of celery
Some spices. Cinnamon or mixed spice is the type of thing. A good couple of heaped teaspoons
One can of plum tomatoes
Slosh of red wine, Marsala or Port, whatever’s in the cupboard.
Tablespoon of tomato puree
1 red pepper
1 aubergine
About half a big tub of plain yoghurt, (which again I think should be about 200-300g’s worth so a couple of wee tubs will also do the trick)
1 egg
Some mature cheddary cheese, if it’s mild it’ll taste a bit bleh in my humble opinion.

First make your bolognese-ish sauce, so chop and sweat your onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, add the chopped carrot and celery and cook down a bit. Then add the spices and gently, gently, gently fry. Add more olive oil, be generous if you want to, it’s not like the rest of the recipe is high in fat. Rinse the lentils and fling them in, along with the tomatoes and good covering of water and simmer. I sometimes add a bay leaf as well if I remember.

While the sauce is cooking, stick a fork into the stalk of the red pepper and whack it onto the gas burner, turning it every so often as it blackens a bit. Put it in a plastic bag so the skin will steam off a bit and then rinse off the skin under a cold tap. If you can be bothered roasting it properly you could do that, but remember it doesn’t really need to cook, just sweeten a bit, as it’s going in the oven later.

It generally says on the pack that the lentils take 20 or so minutes to cook so at that point I taste the sauce and add the tomato puree and the booze to taste. I reckon another ten minutes or so makes the sauce nice and sludgy.

Meanwhile, finely, finely slice your aubergine and preheat your oven to 180 degrees. You can thickly slice it if you prefer but the bugger will take all day to cook.

I use a square dish about 30cm x 30cm and I lay out, not particularly neatly, a layer of aubergine and one of the sauce, with a few bits of pepper on it, then aubergine then sauce with pepper etc, finishing with a layer of aubergine. I reckon I normally get about three layers and have sauce left over.

Mix your yoghurt, egg and a good few handfuls of grated cheese and pour it onto the top of the dish and whack it into the oven for 40-45 mins or until the topping looks delish and a knife goes easily through the aubergine. The topping will slightly souffle up a bit and taste Amazing, I promise. It freezes well and is one of those things that tastes even better the next day as leftovers.

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