Baby Led Weaning

Growing healthy babies with healthy appetites

Posts Tagged ‘soup’

Recipe of the Week: Stock. Come ON, make yer own.

Friday, February 4th, 2011

Click here to see what the guid folk of the forum said about stock…

And here’s how I do it. For chicken, do substitute roast bones of whatever.

1. If you have an extractor fan in the kitchen, for God’s sake switch it on. Stock is lovely, of course it is, but has a tendency to turn the house into a chicken-y sauna if you forget about it.

2. I think Nigella does a whole bit where she SAVES UP the bones of her roast chickens and does a stock from about six of them at a time. That’s what it’s like to be married to a bazillionaire, folks. I grab whatever is left on people’s plates (sooked or not, we’re family) and, having taken what meat is left off the carcass, whack it into a soup pot with a couple of bay leaves, a carrot, onion, coupla bits of garlic, stick of celery and an onion. Whether or not I bother to peel any of these things will depend on my mood. If I have leek tops unused I’ll stick them in too, they’d only get chucked otherwise.

3. Just cover with cold water, and add some peppercorns. Eight, if you want to be exact, which I do not.

4. Simmer for, oh I dunno, 40 mins? Some people like to do it for yonks but their extractor fans must be better than mine.Do remember to switch it off, it is hell on wheels to get out of a pan if you forget.

5. Let it cool and pour through a colander into a tupperware. DO NOT, as I have done too many times, get distracted and pour the liquid down the sink, while treating the smushy veg and bones as if they were the Crown Jewels.

6. Some people will go on about skimming any blech-y bits off the liquid as it cooks, which would be nice if you can be bothered. I can’t. I stick the tub in the fridge to cool and take excess fat (yellowy, gloopy schmaltz) off the next day with a spoon, putting it into an old non-recyclable in the bin.

And then I make soup. Or risotto. Or pilaff… or… *goes all chicken-dreamy*

P.S. If you are asking about veggie stock, allow yourself a moment’s well-deserved smugness and simply follow the same recipe while ignoring all mention of chicken, bones, carcasses and blech.

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JennT's Home-made Bread Croutons

Thursday, August 31st, 2006

JennT says:

Cut a thick slice of bread into
fingers and brush the bread with honey or marmite diluted 50:50 with water
before baking at gas 4/180C/350F for about 20 minutes.  I'm not sure I would use the
marmite ones myself, but I'm assuming that the honey is okay cos it's
cooked.


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Baby Led Weaning Chicken Soup

Monday, August 14th, 2006

So, what did you do with the bones and carcass of your lemony roast chicken from the Finger Foods section? Boiled them up for half an hour with an onion, a stick of celery, a carrot, a couple of bay leaves, some peppercorns and a clove of garlic, did you? Mah-velous, then we are ready to make baby led weaning chicken soup.

Okay then, it's basically just normal chicken soup, so do whatever you usually do (in my case sweat an onion and some leeks if I have them, sling in a couple of sliced carrots and some sliced sticks of celery, add the stock and possibly some low-salt Marigold bouillon to taste and if I feel like it throw in some rice or pasta near the end).

But the smarty-pants thing to remember is to cut some of your veggies in the chip-sized manner (or finger-sized, if we wish to be understood by our New World cousins) and to drop them into the soup while it is cooking.

After a while you are left with the most delicious soft carrot and celery (and whatever else you fancy) which has been poached in chicken soup and can be taken directly from the parental bowl and handed (after a bit of blowing and cooling down) to the baby. Which they love, let's face it. I also find that Babybear likes to eat crusty bread dipped in soup and wrung out like a wee sponge so it isn't too soggy.

Post Script.
We've been putting a good handful of barley into our chicken soup recently and Babybear loves it. She can feed herself a few grains of barley at a time on a spoon (I load it up) and also if you put some crusty bread into the bowl to soak up the soup then press down hard you will simultaneously squeeze the liquid out and pick up lots of barley and veggies. She eats these like an open sandwich, her face wreathed in smiles and carrots.

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Leek and Tattie Soup

Friday, July 14th, 2006

Boomer ate almost as much as me when we dined on this at grandpa and grannies house. Boomer liked eating the same as us and she grabbed my spoon to get at it (see tattie soup photo)

 

ingredients

·        equal quantities of leeks and potatoes

·        olive oil

·        vegetable bouillon powder  (reduced salt)

 

directions

Clean and chop the leeks into small pieces and sweat in the oil, over a medium heat, for about 3mins. Peel the potatoes and chop into small cubes, then stir in with the leeks for 2mins. Mix the stock to a strength that suits and add sufficient to just cover the leek/potato mixture Bring to the boil then cover and reduce to a simmer for 12/15mins. Liquidise but don’t puree – lumpy bits are interesting. Serve with crusty bread for the baby to dunk and season to taste for the grown-ups.

If you want Cream of Leek & Potato, then before serving stir in some milk, cream, or yoghurt.

 

 

 

 

 

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