Chicken Curry for Babies or Toddlers

My little man is a bit off colour.  He had his MMR a couple of weeks ago and he's come out in a rash.  It's apparently quite common as they can get a mild case of measles.  Anyway, he often does better with new foods than foods he's had loads of times so sometimes I find when he's off colour feeding him something new is the way to go, so as with all good ideas, this came to me in bed.

I can't vouch for whether babies would accept the flavours in this but my gut feel is mine would after about 9 months.  Puree the curry before adding the rice if you need to for your little one.  You could change the vegetables, miss out the chicken or use fish if you prefer.

Chicken Curry - serves 4 reasonable sized portions for babies or toddlers if you add rice.

Ingredients

1 Chicken Breast cut into pieces
1 Medium Sweet Potato, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes
1 Large Tomato chopped into 1cm cubes
Half Tin of Coconut Milk
2 tsp Mild Curry Paste (I used Pataks)
A little cornflour
Frozen Chopped Spinach (optional)
Fresh Coriander (optional)

Method

Put the curry paste in a pan and warm through.  Add the coconut milk, mix and bring to the boil.  Add the sweet potato and simmer for about 8 minutes.  Fry the chicken in a bit of spray oil for a few seconds then add the chicken and tomatoes to the coconut mixture and simmer until everything is cooked.  Add spinach and bring back to the boil if desired.  Mix a little (about 1tsp) of cornflour with some water and add to the boiling curry to thicken the gravy.  Mix with boiled basmati rice to serve and sprinkle with fresh coriander if using.   Leave to cool for a few minutes until the right temperature for your baby or child.

Puree the curry if your baby isn't on chopped foods; they may be able to cope with the pureed curry mixed in with the cooked rice as 'soft lumps'.  Otherwise if your baby has a good pincer grip, they may be able to feed themselves.

Reheats well (without the rice, cook the rice fresh each time to prevent food poisoning; it only takes 10 minutes).  I've not tried freezing yet but I will.

Update:  If you like this recipe, give the prawn and mushroom curry a go.

This has got me thinking about the MMR vaccine.  We all become a bit irrational when it comes to our children; even me with a science degree and PhD felt a bit nervous when I was holding him for that jab in a way I didn't for the others.  The thing is; there is no reason to think the MMR jab is any more harmful than any other vaccination.  The research which was published suggesting a link to autism was completely unfounded.  The way I look at it is that there is an unknown and (if present) very small risk from giving vaccinations to your child but there is a known and larger risk of not vaccinating them.  For example, did you know 1% of kids who contract measles go blind?  Measles kills 450 kids a day and it's 100% preventable.  Scary.