Spanish Pork Stew for Babies (9 months plus)

I came up with this recipe because I was starting to feel that I feed a lot of milk and cheese based sauces to my son.  I also wanted to start making him food that more closely reflects the kind of food I like to eat (not that I mind cheese.)


So this is what I came up with.  The flavours are probably a bit full on for babies under 6 months but if you have an adventurous baby, it might be worth a try.  After all, if you think about it, this isn't a million miles away from baked beans, without all the sugar and salt of course and with a few more interesting flavours added in.


A word of warning about smoked paprika.  I wouldn't cook this recipe if you don't use smoked paprika normally, this is because I've been burned (literally?!) by a pot which turned out to be very, very hot.  I'm still suspicious that it was actually chilli powder.  I'd rather you made this mistake on adults than a baby!  But of course if you have a pot in the cupboard you've already used and it has that delicious sweet, smokey combination then you know already it will be fine.

Spanish Pork Stew (made 5 portions for my son)

Ingredients

100 - 150g Pork Belly (rind removed and cut into 2-3cm pieces)
1 carrot, chopped
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of haricot beans (check there's no salt added)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1-2 tsp smoked paprika depending on how much your little one likes their spices.  Make sure it's dulce or sweet smoked paprika or you've used it before and know it not to be a hot one (not all shops label this annoyingly.)

Method


Fry the pork quickly in a frying pan until browned; this adds flavour through the Maillard Reaction.  (All that bumfph about 'sealing' meat is just rubbish.  You fry meat for stews to improve the overall flavour.)

Put all of the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for a couple of hours, then reduce to low for 2-4 hours more or until the pork is very soft.  Add some water if needed.

If you don't have a slow cooker, you could simmer on a hob or put in the oven at a low temperature with a tightly fitting lid.  I've not tested this out though and the joy of slow cookers is it's easier to leave them unattended for long periods of time.

If you're bravely giving this to a 6 month old, puree the lot, with extra boiling water if necessary.  If your baby is 9 months plus then puree the pork with some of the tomatoes and haricot beans leaving some of the beans and carrots whole.  The older your baby gets and the better they're able to cope with lumps, the less you puree.  If your baby can't cope with lumps, mash the beans with a fork so it's not completely smooth (but I found at 10 and a half months my baby 'chewed' the beans on his gums no problem.)

Like this recipe?  Why don't you try the recipe for Goulash.  Very popular with my little man.


As you may have gathered, I'm fond of a budget recipe.  Using pork belly is a way of keeping costs down.  I would love to say I buy rare bread organic but considering my only pay this month was the £80 child benefit, things are a bit tight, so it was a value range pork belly all the way.  The remainder of the pack was used for a thai chilli and basil dish.  I used to make my own sauce for this from scratch but found a brilliant paste in my local chinese supermarket made by a company called Maesri.  Because I'm not Thai, I also use far less of it than they recommend (a rounded dsp for two is plenty) so it's far more economical than buying basil every time I want to eat it.


So I made two meals, one for my baby and one for my husband and I from less than £2 of meat.  This got me thinking of several famous chefs telling you how you should use free range, organic, rare breed, ya-de-ya-de-ya.  If you look in your average supermarket, there isn't much of that stuff for sale so I'm not the only person buying cheaper meat.  I don't exactly like the fact I do, I would prefer to buy more expensive meat but as I heard on the radio today, the average family has lost £500 a year due to tax rises and cuts and that's without factoring in maternity pay (for how long it lasts.)  I think the famous chef approach is honourable but I would prefer it if more people just made their own food.  In general the meat used in preprepared meals for adults or babies is not going to be any better breed nor any more ethically kept animals than the value range pork belly I used (unless it states otherwise.)  


I remember watching a programme where the chef was trying to get people to up the quality of chicken that was being used by people, some of whom where ready meal or takeaway addicts.  One of the women said that she did buy cheap chicken but she used every scrap of it.  Had it roasted, then used up the leftovers the next night then used the bones for soup.  To be honest I thought there is nothing really you can say to that woman.  Yes, cheap chickens are not raised in a way that most people would be happy with if they knew the facts but that was what she could afford and she was using it in the way that made the most use of that chicken, she wasn't wasteful.  I think step 1 is cook yourself, step 2 is not being wasteful and step 3 is buying free range.  If you only make steps 1 and 2, you're not doing too badly in my opinion.

Just had to share this - breastfeeding on TV in the 70s

This made me so pleased to see.  Why don't we see this now?

I'm shocked that nowadays when I read a baby book to my son, whenever feeding is mentioned (and frequently bedtime or bathtime) a picture is shown of a bottle.  Yes, it might be expressed breastmilk but why not show breastfeeding?  As the above link shows, you don't see anything, it's just a nice cuddle with food included.

Sorry, some failures and an improvised hummus

Apologies for my recent lack of posts.  Unfortunately recent meals I've been less than successful with my little one.  Things I've tried this week include an (adult) meal from a food website (which he decided was too bland) and stir fried vegetables with noodles, garlic, ginger and a tiny bit of soy (fine with the peppers but the noodles just confused and frustrated him).  Not a result.


The one success we've had over the past week has been with an improvised hummus.  I had some haricot beans waiting to be used up in the fridge and so made this up to put in a sandwich for him.  The reason I've avoided commercial hummus is because it contains tahini (as he has eczema I'm being very cautious about introducing nuts or sesame yet) and it also contains salt.

'Hummus' style haricot dip

Half a tin of haricot beans
Half a clove of garlic, crushed until smooth
Squeeze of lemon juice
A small splash of water
Olive oil

Method

Puree all of the above ingredients until you have the texture you like.

I also made some soft cheese sandwiches but they went straight on the floor whereas he seemed to like this and was chewing and licking away at them.


I know this isn't traditional because it's not made with chickpeas but haricot beans was what I had and it kinda worked.  Might be worth trying with other pulses.

Pear and Vanilla puree and Relationships

Facebook has changed the way we interact with friends and acquaintances.  Do I really have over 100 friends in my life?  Probably not.  In that list of "friends" are people I would have (and in some cases had) lost touch with had social networking sites not existed.  So why am I friends with as many people on there as I am?  I suppose I feel like it keeps people updated on what's going on in our lives without having to update each person in turn.  But what does this say of me as a person and of my friendships?


One thing that has surprised me though is, taken in a different format, communicating through emails, instant messaging, posts and photographs has changed some of these relationships.  People who I spoke to infrequently now know (and care) more about what's going on with me than people I previously talked to a lot.  Also having that step removed, being reduced to text makes people braver somehow.  Like being hidden behind a screen enables a display of vulnerability which would have been more difficult to show in person or on the phone and I think a degree of vulnerability only strengthens relationships.  People who say everything is tickedy-boo all the time are just better liars.


So, anyway, I've come up with a new fruit puree combination.

Pear and Vanilla Puree

4 Pears
1 tsp vanilla extract (not essence).

Method

Peel and core the pears.  Add a tiny amount of water and put on a hob with a lid on the top.  Cook until softened.  Add a tsp of the vanilla extract and mix.  Puree with as little amount of water as needed to puree them (you may find none is needed, pears are quite juicy.)  Freezes well and mixes well with yoghurt as a pudding.

Pears were less than 70p a bag in my local supermarket last week so it makes the above recipe really economical.


Oh, by the way, despite my lofty reasoning above, the real reason I joined facebook was for the scrabble.