A tour around Mamacook

For those of you new to my site, I thought I would give you a brief tour and point out some of the things I'm proud of on my website and why I do what I do.

Wholemeal Apple Pancakes

My blog is completely for the love of it, for the passion for food.  I work in the food industry as a food safety / technical interim manager and consultant but this blog does not make a penny for me.  I'm not saying that some day I wouldn't like to take up food writing as part of my career but as I write I have not made a bean.

Why do something that makes you no money?  I did consider this earlier this year.  My business has taken off and I'm very busy nowadays but as I said, this is my passion in life, it's what brings me happiness so if you only measure life in £s, I suppose that might seem strange but if you value living what drives you and what makes you happy then the £s don't matter.

I started my blog back in January 2011 as I was on maternity leave with my son and wanted something for me but also something I could involve my son in.  He had recently started weaning and I had always been determined he should eat good food.  I never wanted him to be the fussy child at a party, I didn't want others to feel like they had to cook special meals for him.  When he's older and takes a girlfriend out, I wanted him to have cosmopolitain tastes.  This is all because food was important to me as a child and still is.

When I was 5 (yep, that picture is me) I went abroad for the first time to France and saw my parents eating langoustines and ate delicious French sausages.  When I was 7 I was eating prawns, shelling them myself in Spain.  When I was 8 and older, I was choosing fish off the menu in Greek Tavernas and happily deboning them myself.  Holidays were the times when I could experiment and try different things I'd not tried at home.  They were really special times for me and I can credit my parents with getting us to try different foods at a young age that I was prepared to try new things abroad.

There is an immense joy in food, or there can be.  Food isn't just nutrients, it's a way of caring for the people you love.  It can be communication, subtlety, excitement.  I guess I didn't want a child who said "I don't like fish" or "urgh that looks disgusting" without trying it.  (Well an occasional failure on the second count.  He is two years old and one of his favourite words is "disgusting" but 99% of the time he will give things a go.)

There have been surprises on my journey.  I almost gave up after someone threw a wobbly at me for suggesting she could make her son no added sugar pancakes instead of chocolate and biscuits.  I expected my blog to grow quicker than it did (I was pretty naive in those days).  When I posted my first blog post (which has still only had 113 pageviews) I wasn't prepared for that feeling of posting into the void.  I expected a reaction, something anyway.  But by having a blog it has forced me out of a recipe rut and encouraged me to try new things.  Who would have thought a toddler's favourite food would be mussels?

My ethos about food is first of all, kids food should be interesting.  There is no way my son is ever getting his food arranged in a smiley face or to look like a train (unless it's a birthday cake.)  I don't mean food should be joyless or look unappetising, far from it, but I mean that as a culture, British people do all this messing and fussing with the appearance of food for kids and forget about flavour.  A case in point is this:

So there are the first two rules; tastes good and I'm not making it into a clown face.  The next two things I try and adhere to, at least for kids food is low salt and low added sugar.  I do sometimes break this but we all need treats.  I have devised loads of no added sugar muffin recipes over the years so even no added sugar doesn't have to mean no fun. 

I worry that too many treats often given to kids for snacks are high fat, high sugar and low nutrition.  The next thing I try to do with every recipe is use store cupboard ingredients.  I'm not immune to the odd bit of processed foods (I do buy felafels sometimes for my son and I to share and I make custard from powder) but in general I do like to cook from decent ingredients and decent quantities of them.  I remember looking at a jar of baby food when my son was a baby out of curiosity.  It was fortified with iron yet was a beef stew.  I looked on the back, confused why fortification was needed when it contained beef to realise it was only 8% beef.  Really?  

I sometimes break away from the above and meals for adults sometimes are slightly higher in salt than I would give to my son.  I include these though because I realise many parents eat most meals with their children but it's not always possible for both parents or partners to be home at the same time so often the evening meal is after the children have gone to bed.  I know that parents like something quick, simple and tasty like this Vietnamese Chicken Salad.

So the last thing I have come to hope my blog is about is food photography.  These are still early days for me and I am self taught but I thought I'd share with you three of the photographs I'm most proud of.

Braised Red Cabbage

This was a fairly new departure for me, using cutlery (yeah, I know, crazy thought!)  I love the colours though.

Coleslaw

This wasn't my first coleslaw shot and I would normally never photograph from above but somehow it just works, the texture, the colours.  I love it.

Stuffed Naans

My first foray into some proper food styling, I'm normally far too lazy or busy.  The idea for this recipe came from a good friend so I'm incredibly pleased the photograph came out so well.

I hope you enjoyed my introduction to "Mamacook". 

Baked Chicken with Garlic and Rosemary

A simple piece of chicken, cooked with some flavour and it is guaranteed that anything with breadcrumbs is more likely to be eaten by a child.  No added salt, not reformed chicken, just simple, proper food.

The amounts below are for one chicken breast.  I would happily share this with my son and certainly it would be enough for two kids.  For adults you might want to serve one chicken breast each.  If you do make more, just make sure your dish is big enough so there's a bit of space around each breast so it cooks evenly and the crumbs go crispy.  Sliced up this makes great finger food for younger children or older babies too.

Baked Chicken with Garlic and Rosemary - serves 2 children

Ingredients

1 Chicken breast, skinless and boneless
1/2 clove of garlic, crushed
A few needles of rosemary, finely chopped.  I used rosemary because it's the only herb poking through the snow in my garden right now!
2 tbsp Natural full fat yogurt
1 tbsp Grated extra mature / vintage (sharp) cheddar or another strong cheese
1-2 tbsp Breadcrumbs (made fresh, not from a packet, see tip below)
1 tsp Olive oil

Method

Put the chicken breast in a bowl and coat with the garlic, rosemary, yogurt and cheddar.  Refrigerate until ready to cook (preferably marinade for 2 - 12 hours).

Preheat the oven to 200oC / 400F, Put the chicken breast in a baking dish and cover on top with the breadcrumbs.  Drizzle over the olive oil and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through (26 minutes in my oven but this will depend on the size of the breasts and the characteristics of your oven.)

Check the chicken is cooked through, allow to cool for a bit then serve with vegetables, potato wedges or sweet potato wedges would be nice and would make use of the oven which was already on.

Tip:  You can buy breadcrumbs and, in fact, I have a pack of Panko breadcrumbs in my cupboard waiting to make katsu with sometime but the cheapest and easiest thing to do is when you have the odd few slices or crust of a loaf left, whizz them up into crumbs in a food processor and freeze them.  Great for using for this recipe, in stuffings, for coating chicken nuggets or mushrooms, all kind of stuff and effectively free as you would have ended up chucking that bit away.  It's frugal food folks and it's all good!

I've linked this up here.

Beef, Mushroom and Chestnut Stew for the Whole Family

I've never really used chestnuts apart from making chestnut stuffing but when seeing a pack of vacuum packed cooked chestnuts reduced after Christmas, I felt the urge to try something new.

Chestnuts, unlike other nuts are fairly low in fat but also have a lovely sweetness and are surprisingly high in vitamin C, folates and lots of other trace nice stuff.  The great thing too is they have a fantastic texture which makes you feel like you're eating more meat than you are.  This is a great thing for our health and for the environment and if something tastes as delicious as this, trust me, you really won't mind padding out 330g of beef to serve lots of people!  What's more the sweet chestnuts makes this an easier sell to kids.

Beef, Mushroom and Chestnut Stew - Serves 3-4

Ingredients

330g Stewing beef (this is just what my pack weighed, if I had a slightly bigger or smaller pack I'd keep the other proportions the same)
2 tsp Olive oil or butter if you prefer
1 Carrot, chopped
1 Medium sized onion, chopped
2 Cloves of garlic, chopped
100g Smoked bacon, chopped
150ml Red wine
100ml Water (see note below*)
1 Bay leaf
Sprig of thyme
200g Cooked chestnuts
150g Mushrooms (I used chestnut mushrooms)
15g Butter
1 tsp Cornflour (cornstarch)

Method

Fry the beef in 1 tsp of the oil until browned.  This browning adds more flavour so do use a high heat and fry in batches if needed.

Once the beef is brown, put into a slow cooker and use the wine to scrape up the yummy brown bits from the bottom then pour that in the slow cooker.  Wipe the frying pan then fry the carrot, onion and bacon until the onion is starting to brown and the bacon has released some of it's fat, add the garlic and fry for another minute or so and add to the slow cooker.  Use approx 100 ml or so* of boiling water to get any flavourful bits off the bottom of the frying pan (see note below).

(If you prefer you can omit the oil and fry in the fat released from the beef and the bacon if it's fatty enough to do so.)

Add the herbs and cook on high for approx 3-4 hours (or on low for longer) or until the beef is pretty much done.  Fry the mushrooms in the butter until browned and add to the stew with the chestnuts.  Cook for a further 30 mins - 1 hour.

If you want to thicken the gravy, mix the cornflour with a little water and then mix it into the stew while the heat is on high and the stew is bubbling.  Leave to thicken and until all the floury flavour is cooked out.

This fantastic stew makes a meal out of a small amount of beef so I've linked it up to the credit crunch munch here!

*Slow cookers do vary in how much liquid they lose over the cooking time.  The one I use now is a family sized oval one but I used to have a tall narrow one.  My old slow cooker barely lost a tsp of water over the cooking time but, perhaps the shape means my new one loses far more.  It also tends to cook a little quicker.  So, as a result I add a bit more water to a stew now than my old one would have needed.  If you're unsure, don't add the water at the start but add it later on if it's starting to dry out.

Pear and Almond Pancakes for Babies, Toddlers and the Whole Family

Pear and almond is a traditional combination, I love a good frangipane tart but can never be bothered to make one!  Well this recipe uses things you might have to hand and can just about manage to whip up on a snowy Sunday morning in January!

Pear and Almond Pancakes - Makes plenty for 2 adults, 1 toddler and the freezer!

Ingredients

190g, 6.5oz Wholemeal Self Raising Flour (or the same of plain flour with 2 tsp baking powder)
45g, 1.5oz Ground almonds
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/4 tsp Almond Extract
300-350ml (10-12 fl oz) Milk (use almond milk, soy milk or apple juice to make dairy free)
2 Ripe pears, grated

To cook
A knob of butter (or spray oil to make dairy free)

To serve (optional)
Butter
Honey (to over 1 year olds only)

Method

Grate the pears with the skin but discarding the core.  Put the grated pear, 300ml milk, egg, flour, almonds, extract and baking powder into a blender and blend until the flour has been incorporated.  You want a consistency which is like double (heavy) cream, maybe a touch thicker so add a little more milk if needed.

Heat up a non stick frying pan and cook in the pan, I have some instructions here on how to cook pancakes like these although do be aware that with wholemeal flour the bubbles aren't always as easy to see.

Once browned on both sides, serve with a knob of butter and a drizzle of honey if liked (over 1 year olds only) but my 2 year old loved these plain (he ate three after already eating 2 weetabix for breakfast!)

Slow Cooked Sausage and Lentil Stew for the whole family

Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.  This recipe was invented because of the boxing day excessive quantities of garlicky sausages due to my family cassoulet for 24 being cancelled.  It's a long story, take a look at my post for the Britmums site.

Anyway, however much I love cassoulet, man (or woman) cannot live by cassoulet alone.

Slow Cooked Sausage and Lentil Stew - made at least 7 adult portions, freezes well

Ingredients

8 (approximately 700g) garlicky sausages, I used Grasmere Farm "Rutland"
1 medium sized Onion
1 medium sized Carrot
1 stick of Celery
300g, 10oz Green lentils
150g, 5oz Belly pork (remove rind and cut into small pieces)
2 tsp Olive oil
A few sprigs of thyme
A bay leaf (fresh or dried)
Parsley to serve

Method

Pour a good quantity of boiling water over the green lentils, bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes.

Cut the belly pork into very small pieces and fry in 1tsp olive oil until browned.  Put into the slow cooker.  Brown the sausages and do the same.

Add the onions, carrots (finely diced) and celery to the frying pan with the remaining olive oil and fry until starting to brown.  Add to the slow cooker.

Add the thyme and bay leaf.

Once the lentils have boiled, drain and add to the slow cooker with 350ml, 12 fl oz Boiling water.

Cook on high for about 2-3 hours (depending on how fierce your slow cooker is, some are more gentle than others) or until the lentils and sausages are cooked and the vegetables are softened.  Remove the bay leaf and serve sprinked with parsley if liked and with garlic bread on the side.

My normally sausage obsessed son decided he liked the lentils best last time he had this and barely touched the sausages!  That's toddlers for you, just when you think you know them... The lentils are delicious though.

It freezes and reheats well although the lentils do lose a bit of structure, that's no bad thing.  If you have very little ones, it would be a great "soft lumps" food to give them some of the herby lentils building up to having a bit of sausage as they're older and can deal with more texture.

The best of Mamacook 2012

Hi All of you,

2013 is here, for months I will be changing the 2 on the end to a 3 by adding a bit onto the bottom!

It's been a busy and exciting year including making it to the final of Britmums Brilliance in Blogging awards as a finalist in the Tasty category.  It made me immensely proud to get there.  I've also started my own business and frankly I'm pretty happy if mad busy.

I only hope 2013 brings as much good stuff but preferably a little less of the bad stuff.  Resolutions?  Well my first is to learn to ride a bike, my second is to get more clients for my business closer to home, my third is to work a bit less and my fourth is to follow my heart more in life.

So, in my mood for reflection, here are the top ten posts of 2012 as decided by you kind readers...

Broccoli Nuggets

Despite posting this on April Fools Day, I was completely serious and from the stories I've had, this is the recipe which has got more kids and adults eating their greens than any other (9000+ at last count).  You can't say fairer than that!


Sugar Free Flapjack

Truly a post for the new year, this was my attempt to make a flapjack recipe without using sugar or syrup.

Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect but it's a bloody good go and my son was a big fan.

Little Gold Men

Little did I know when posting this recipe how much my world was about to change.  Although I didn't win the award, I was less than a month away from leaving my job and starting my own business.  Neither were in my plans but both were the best things I could have done.  I'm also convinced this is the best biscuit recipe I've ever made.  I keep meaning to make them for adults, they're very tasty.

Sausage Plait

For some reason this recipe has suddenly become really popular.  It's a great year round recipe though and a fantastic sneaky vegetable dish.  (Regular readers will know how much I like to sneak in some insurance vegetables!)

Courgette and Feta Bites

A variation on the broccoli ones but (shhhh) I think a bit better.

Mini Quiches

I made these for my son's birthday party and they were a huge hit.  No way did I make enough!  Very more-ish and delicious and a great way to include vegetables for those who are a little reluctant.

Chicken Pasta Bake

Ah, the pasta bake.  Another fantastic way to hide those veggies but also a great and thrifty way to use up ingredients and help prevent waste.  We all need recipes like these in straightened times.

Sugar Free Double Apple Muffins

These are deliciously light, dairy and sugar free.  Fantastic.

Oaty mini muffins

There was a time it felt like I was always making muffins.  These were one of the first where I'd really had a go at lightening the mix though and it worked a treat.

Meatballs

This was one of the first recipes I ever made up.  I've been making this for years, so long in fact it almost makes me feel like I'm some kind of Italian Mamma for making them.  I don't make them often enough, they're a bit of a labour of love but so adored by kids and loads of the hidden vegetables.  You must try them.

It's made me realise what fantastic recipes 2012 brought.  I hope to be as inspired this year and I wish you all of the best for yourselves and your families.