Cooking with Kids :: Chicken Satay Recipe

Ever since I was a little younger than Lara is now, chicken satay has been one of my favourite meals.  In our house, chicken satay with rice and an oriental salad (gado gado) is probably our number one family meal that we all enjoy together.  These days the girls can help me out with a few of the main elements of the meal.

We like to serve our chicken satay with fluffy basmati rice (ideally cooked in a Rice Cooker to make it extra fluffy and to make sure that the whole house fills with the yummy smell of rice in the build up to dinner time).  I make a sweet and hot peanut dipping sauce to accompany the satay and serve the whole meal with prawn crackers.

CHICKEN SATAY with PEANUT SAUCE (serves 4)

INGREDIENTS

3 large chicken breasts

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon chinese five spice powder

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce or ketchap manis

2 cloves of garlic

1 inches of ginger root

1 heaped teaspoon cornflour

For the sauce

2 heaped tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter

180ml of tap water

1/4 teaspoon chilli powder (or to taste)

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

1 teaspoon honey

For the salad

2 carrots

half a cucumber

200g beansprouts

a handful of cashew nuts

3-4 hard-boiled eggs

METHOD

1. Peel and roughly chop the ginger and garlic.  Dice the chicken into pieces no bigger than 1 inch cubes.  Place the chicken pieces with the ginger, garlic, turmeric, five spice powder, oil, soy sauce and cornflour into a large mixing bowl and mix well to coat.  Cover with cling film and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours to marinate.  Holly loves messy jobs like this (and beware, turmeric and oil have a tendency of staining EVERYTHING) but her big sister isn't so keen.

2. You can make the sauce well ahead of time.  Place all of the ingredients into a small saucepan and heat over a very gentle heat until the peanut butter melts into the water.  It will look like it is separated.  Keep stirring and within a couple of minutes it will miraculously thicken.  Once it does this, take it off the heat and pour straight into small dipping bowls to cool.

3. I also like to prepare the salad in advance because it gives me more time to concentrate on other things later.  You can serve the salad hot or cold.  Chop the carrot into batons and steam over a pan of hot water until just softened.  Place the beansprouts into the boiling water you used for steaming the carrots and keep them there for a maximum of one minute before draining them.  Chop the cucumber into batons around the same size as the carrots and then mix all the vegetables together.  Sprinkle on the cashew nuts (you may wish to toast them first) and  pieces of boiled egg.  Sometimes we also sprinkle on slices of fresh red chilli, or fresh corriander.  You can also make this salad with green beans.

4. Place the marinated chicken pieces onto skewers.  We currently use small metal kebab skewers but the traditionalist in me prefers to use bamboo skewers (you can buy big bags of these in your local supermarket) because I love the smell of the bamboo as it warms (aka burns) under the grill.

5. Grill the satay kebabs for around 10-15 minutes, turning frequently to ensure that the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Serve your satay with steamed basmati rice and prawn crackers for dipping into the peanut sauce (this is our favourite part of the whole meal).

Cooking with Kids :: Turkey Pitta Pockets with Tortilla Chips

With the change in weather, we have fancied a few lighter meals in the evenings.  Last night the girls helped me make healthy turkey pitta pockets served with an array of crunchy salads and Manomasa premium tortilla chips. It was such a quick meal to prepare, very summery and both the girls could get involved.

TURKEY PITTA POCKETS with TORTILLA CHIPS (Serves 4)

INGREDIENTS
500g lean turkey mince
Ground black pepper
5-6 thinly sliced spring onions
1/4 teaspoon mild chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon tomato puree

Approx. 6 pitta bread, cut into two pieces

Lots of raw salad vegetables such as grated carrot, tomato, cucumber, celery, crispy iceberg lettuce, raisins
Grated cheese
1 bag Mamomasa Tomatillo Salsa Tortilla Chips

METHOD

• In a big mixing bowl, squish together the turkey mince, black pepper, spring onions, chilli powder and tomato puree.  Lara hates getting her finger dirty, but Holly loved kitchen activities like this!
• Form the turkey mix into about 10 small patties and flatten them slightly to less than 1 inch thick.
• Heat a large non-stick frying pan.  You can cook these with or without oil - they will take longer to cook without oil.
• Fry for about 4 minutes on each side.  Check one of them is cooked all the way through before serving.

• Lightly grill the pitta bread before serving.
• The best way to serve this meal is to place the tortilla chips, cheese and salad in bowls in the middle of the table so that your children can help themselves.  Give everyone a pitta pocket and a turkey patty and then let them loose on the crispy bits.

  

Manomasa premium tortilla chips come in a range of shapes and sizes with some exciting flavours (which you really can taste).  Our family favourites were the Green Lemon and Pink Peppercorn traditional tortilla chips which we all LOVED.  You can find Manomasa chips in Waitrose, Whole Foods and independent delis.

Kids in the Kitchen with Hintons

Hintons is a homeware and gift store based in Dorset and they've recently revamped their website so that people all over the country can browse and order from their range; having taken a virtual tour of Hintons' website, I think their stores would be just my kind of place with lots of kitchen goodies and fun games and gifts.  Hintons wanted to give us a taste of their range of bakery items because they knew that Lara and Holly love spending time in the kitchen.

Last weekend, Holly, Lara and I made homemade jammie dodgers for the first time ever with a very handy gadget from Hintons.  Our jammie dodger cutter was very popular with both Lara and Holly who were unstoppable when it came to punching little biscuit shapes.  The cutter comes with 8 different shapes of inserts including all of the playing card shapes.  We chose some valentine's themed jammie dodgers (and, for Lara, who won't eat jam, we invented choccie dodgers filled with Nutella).  I thought this gadget was great fun... until I had to clean it.  It is dishwasher safe but took a fair few trips through the machine in order to come clean!

Today, Holly and I baked again.  Holly tends to help me in the kitchen three or four times a week at present (it isn't all baking!) and today she wanted to make cakes.  Inspired by The Great Comic Relief Bake Off this week, we made marbled cupcakes in these decorative cupcake cases from Hintons.

Baking with Holly is never an exact science and I've learned not to stress if she wants to chuck everything into a bowl in one go...or mix the cake mixture for 30 minutes... or put ALL of the mixture into one cupcake.  It really doesn't matter, so long as Holly is enjoying herself.  Holly swirled vanilla cake mix with chocolate cake mix and topped them off with a thick chocolate icing and some rapunzel cake toppers (as you do).

Holly simply couldn't wait for the icing to set.  Which was a bit of an issue.  Because it meant that post-cake she looked a bit like this.

You can find Hintons online at hintonshome.com or on Facebook.  I've picked out a few of my favourite items from their range for cooking accessories or gifts for children; the full range can be found at Hintons Home Childrens Kitchen.

#Knorr #ProductOfTheYear Thai Chicken Laksa with Sweet Chilli Rolls

I'm not a great fan of the cold and at this time of year, I turn to warming soups and hot bread rolls.  I had been stuck in a bit of a soup rut (curried lentil or parsnip soups are my staple diet) so I found the lastest Knorr blogger challenge to be a good way of inspiring me to create something a little different.  This warming soup and rolls has a bit of a twist - it is a spicy oriental chicken noodle soup that uses a few of the different flavours of Knorr Flavour Pots, this year's Sauce & Seasoning Product of the Year winner.  It was a bit too spicy for Holly, but her older sister very much enjoyed making and eating this soup and bread.

THAI CHICKEN LAKSA with SWEET CHILLI ROLLS (Serves 4-6)

INGREDIENTS

For the bread:

500g strong white flour

1 tsp fast action dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

350ml tepid milk or water

1 Knorr Mixed Chillis Flavour Pot

1 tblsp clear honey

For the laksa:

1 tblsp vegetable/sesame oil

1 large chicken breast

1 Knorr Ginger & Lemongrass Flavour Pot

1 small sweet potato

1/2 a head of fennel (you can use 2 sticks of celery as an alternative)

1/2 a butternut squash

1/2 a red onion

1/2 a can coconut milk

1 Knorr Curry Flavour Pot

1 tblsp crunchy peanut butter

1 pint chicken stock (Knorr stock pots work well here too! but I had some homemade stock available)

200g rice noodles

1 tblsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 lime

4 spring onions

A handful of fresh corriander leaves

METHOD

• Make the bread by combining the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a bowl and then slowly adding the warm milk until it forms a soft dough.  Place on a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
• Make a well in the centre of the dough and place the contents of one Mixed Chillis flavour pot into the hollow.  Fold the edges of the dough over carefully and then squish and knead for another 3-5 minutes until all of the chilli mixture is well combined into your dough.  Leave the dough in an oiled bowl, somewhere warm (but not hot) for 1.5 hours until it has doubled in size.

• Place the chicken breast on a piece of greaseproof paper or cling film and then spread the contents of the Ginger and Lemongrass Flavour Pot all over it, covering both sides.  Leave to marinade for at least 1 hour.

• Once the dough has risen, knock it back by kneading gently for a minute.  Break it into 8 equal sized pieces and roll them into neat balls.  Lara (5) absolutely loved helping me do this, and between us, we could have taken on Paul Hollywood with our rolling skillz.  Place the rolls onto a baking tray (I sprinkled some polenta onto mine to stop the rolls from sticking) and leave to rise for another 30 minutes while you pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees (or a little less for a fan oven).
• Put the rolls in the oven for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown and sound hollow when you tap the bases. 
• As the rolls cool, brush them with a little honey on the top of each roll.  The combination of spicy, savoury chilli with the sweet honey is delicious.

• Peel and grate the sweet potato and butternut squash.
• Slice the red onion and fennel (or celery) and fry for 2-3 minutes in a large saucepan with half of the vegetable oil.  Add the contents of a Knorr Curry Flavour Pot and stir to coat.

 

• Add the grated vegetables, soy sauce, sugar, peanut butter and then the stock.  I also needed to add about 1 pint of boiled water to fully cover the vegetables.
• Bring to the boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.

 

• Meanwhile, prepare the chicken.  Fold the paper or cling film over the chicken and bash with a rolling pin until it is flattened.  Lara LOVED this!
• Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan and then fry the chicken well on both sides until well-blackened.
• Once fully cooked, place the chicken breast on a chopping board and slice thinly.

• To finish the soup, add the coconut milk and the juice of half the lime.  Add the rice noodles and simmer for about 3-5 minutes.
• Serve the noodle soup into bowls and then sprinkle the chicken pieces, spring onions and fresh corriander over the top.  Squeeze over the remaining fresh lime for an extra kick!
• Serve the soup with the warm chilli rolls.  Nom.

Cooking with Kids :: Chicken and Mushroom Christmas Crackers

Christmas cookery with kids doesn't have to be all about cakes and sweets.  The new Kids Christmas Cookery App from Great British Chefs has some awesome festive recipes for cooking with children this Christmas such as these Chicken Christmas Crackers which are wrapped in filo pastry to look like festive crackers.

The Chicken Christmas Crackers recipe is one from Michelin-starred chef AlynWilliams and is one of a long list of tempting recipes on the Great British Chefs website which are designed for cooking with or for children.

The recipe is accessible online or through the new iOS app which makes it easy for me to follow when we are in the kitchen without having to plug in my computer on a kitchen work surface!  Our Chicken Christmas Crackers are made with chicken breast, mushrooms, broccoli, onion and creme fraiche all wrapped up in some sheets of filo pastry and brushed with a little butter to make them look all the more tempting.

The Great British Chefs website has easy to follow instructions for cooking them and points out several places in the recipe where it would work well to get your children to help out such as wrapping the crackers or basting them before cooking.

We served our festive Filo Chicken Crackers with salad and a little cranberry sauce (Great British Chefs recomends a paprika and chive sauce which sounds equally yummy.)

Cooking with Kids : Slow-Cooked Shredded Beef with Honey Mustard Bread Rolls

Unilever Kitchen challenged me and the girls to come up with an inspiring winter warmer recipe using some of their household names such as Knorr, Bovril, Hellmanns, Maille and Flora.  This weekend, the three of us got cooking to make this sumptuous dish of slow-cooked shredded sticky beef with honey mustard bread rolls.  Holly made the beef and Lara made the bread - it was definitely a team effort and the smell of the beef cooking filled the house with scrumptiousness all day!

SLOW-COOKED SHREDDED BEEF (Serves 6-8)

Beef roasting joint (approximately 1kg)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons tomato puree

2 tablespoons Bovril

1 tablespoon Maille wholegrain mustard

2 heaped tablespoons brown sugar

A sprinkling of black pepper

1 Knorr Beef Stock Pot

2 tablespoons hot water

• Place the beef joint whole into the slow-cooker pot.
• Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over the beef.
• Cover and cook for 7-9 hours on a low setting.
• When you are ready to serve, take the joint out and shred it using two forks.  Put the meat back into the slow-cooker pot and mix it up with all the lovely juices.

HONEY MUSTARD BREAD ROLLS (Makes 16-18 rolls)

750g Strong white bread flour

60g Flora Buttery

7g fast action dried yeast

450ml tepid milk

1 tablespoon Maille Dijon mustard with Honey

1 teaspoon salt

For the glaze

2 teaspoons Maille Dijon mustard with Honey

1 egg, beaten

• Rub the Flora Buttery into the flour with your fingertips.
• Stir in the yeast and salt.
• Make a large well in the middle and pour in the milk and mix in the mustard with a wooden spoon.
• Using your hands, bring the mixture together to make a soft yellow dough.  Turn it out onto the worktop or board and knead hard for 10 minutes until the dough turns smooth and elastic.  Place it into a clean well-oiled bowl, cover tightly with cling-film and leave in a warm place for 1.5 hours to rise.
• Once risen, split the dough into 16 to 18 small pieces and roll them into balls.  Place them onto greased baking trays and leave for another 30 minutes until they double in size.
• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees centigrade while you are waiting.
• Just before you put the rolls into the oven, mix the egg and the remaining mustard together to make a glaze.  Brush over the rolls and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
• Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.
• Serve warm. 

To serve, spread the rolls with lashings of Hellmanns mayonnaise and fill with shredded lettuce and large handfuls of shredded beef.  We ate our lovely warm beef rolls with Colman's Season & Steam Garden Herb Potatoes.

Children's App Review - Henri Le Worm : The Missing Cookbook

As you may know, this week Lara and I attended the launch of a new children's cookery and adventure app, Henri Le Worm : The Missing Cookbook.

Lara was lucky enough to get a week's preview and so she was already a big fan of the app by the time of the launch. Yesterday though Lara sat down with my iPad and played the entire game from beginning to end and was engrossed for just over an hour. When she got to the end she seemed very proud of herself and did a little dance.

Henri le Worm is an app of two parts. The first is a game which features Henri, a very stereotypical french chef (and worm) and his adventures with his insect friends. The second part is a set of child-friendly recipes provided by world-renowned chef Raymond Blanc who also happens to be the father of one of the two creators of this fab new app. The idea is that the fun of the app which features food-related games and interesting food facts is designed to encourage an interest in food and that once that little spark has ignited, there are easy-to-follow recipes to help your child then get involved in the creation of fabulous food.

The app is suitable for children from 2 years to about 6 or 7 years old. Each scene has interactive activities and games to get involved in such as cleaning up a spilled bowl of flour (Lara's most favourite part of the entire game) or preparing pancakes for breakfast. There is a map to explore and puzzles to solve such as simple hide and seek.

The app features fun sound effects and great comedy voices supplied by comedy genius Simon Pegg. The story through the scenes is narrated and also features text across the bottom of the screen for young readers. It took Lara a few tries with the game to realise that there was a story to follow, but i think her epic play session this weekend was the point when she realised that there was a goal to the game. It took me quite some time to realise that there is a tab in the top-right of the screen which allows you to navigate straight to any point in the game you wish... even so, I still think that it would be nice to have a feature that allowed your child to re-start the game directly at the point they left off.

Lara loves fruit and vegetables, she cooks a meal with me at least once a week and loves to cook and eat meals with us so I don't think she NEEDS an app like Henri Le Worm to encourage an interest in food but I think she enjoys the app even more because of this love. Lara was really eager to try out some of the recipes in the app after our visit to London this week but I feel like this part of the app was a little bit of an afterthought - the recipes could do with more photos and more of a focus on cooking with kids, rather than for kids... I'd also like to see MORE of them and to have more direct references and links from the games into the recipes.

That said, I think Henri Le Worm is a great app and i can't wait to see more Henri adventures in the future.

Henri Le Worm : The Missing Cookbook costs £2.99 in the app store. It is currently available on iPad but will be coming to iPhone soon.

Lara Meets... Raymond Blanc

Earlier this week Lara got to meet one of her TV idols on a really inspiring trip to London.  I think Lara is pretty unusual for a 4 year old in that she knew and recognised french chef Raymond Blanc; in fact, having recently enjoyed watching Raymond's BBC2 series How to Cook Well, Lara had been beside herself with excitement before our trip to Covent Garden this Wednesday.

Lara was invited for a cookery lesson with Raymond as part of the launch of a new iPad app by Raymond's son, Olivier.  The app in question is Henri Le Worm : The Missing Cookbook which I intend to review on my blog in the very near future (it is fab) and it features a french chef (Henri le Worm) and his garden friends and is designed to encourage an interest in food and ingredients in children from 2 years upwards.  The app also features a handful of recipes from Raymond Blanc for cooking and enjoying with kids.  If you know anything about me and my food mantra for kids then you'll know how perfect this app and its goals are for Mellow Mummy.

Our morning at Brasserie Blanc in Covent Garden was great fun.  When we arrived, the only other people there were the creators, Olivier Blanc and Charlotte Salt and one of my own comedy idols, Simon Pegg with his gorgeous daughter who was a little younger than Lara.

After a breakfast of fresh fruit and croissants there were the obligatory speeches and general congratulations and then came the important part - the cookery lessons.

The restaurant had been laid out with lots of individual cookery stations for the children.  Raymond demonstrated the cookery skills with enthusiasm and plenty of arm-waving.  He sang nursery rhymes and raved about great food and quality ingredients.  He oohed and aahed and really encouraged and congratulated each of the children on their achievements.  I thought he was hilarious but I'm not convinced that Lara could understand anything that he said... so we were thankful for some really talented chefs who stepped in to help the children where needed.

Lara took it all very seriously (as she does with most challenges she takes on) and was genuinely interested when I 'translated' to her Raymond's speech about the importance of animal welfare in egg production.  I don't think Lara and I need converting to the cause of encouraging a love of great food and ingredients from a young age.. but it was very inspiring to hear both Raymond and Simon Pegg rave about how important an interest in food is for our children.

Lara made the most amazing chocolate mousse (helped I think by a really really good quality of chocolate) and enjoyed whipping the egg whites immensely.  We took the mousse home with us and enjoyed it as a picnic on the train!

She also made and decorated these mayonnaise mice (one of the recipes from the Henri Le Worm app) from which she stole the salad (she isn't much in to mayo... even if it is home-made).  Raymond gave Lara a high five for her decoration which bought the most enormous smile to her face.

Lara and I completed an amazing day with a bit of shopping in Covent Garden, an indulgent lunch and then a movie at the cinema.  I wish all days were this amazing.

Annabel Karmel Quick & Easy Toddler Recipes Book Review

Annabel Karmel's latest book is released today - Quick & Easy Toddler Recipes is a book perfect for our family as it features simple tasty recipes suitable for Holly, for Lara and the whole family.

I now own quite an array of Annabel Karmel cookery books - I like her simple approach to food without stressing too much about whether something is officially 'healthy' or officially 'fun'; it means that her recipe books aren't patronising.  Quick & Easy Toddler Recipes is a book for parents of toddlers and preschoolers but the recipes are suitable for all the rest of the family too, in fact there are lots of my own favourites in there such as Nasi Goreng and Sticky Lamb Chops.

The book features ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and pudding.  None of the recipes take up more than one page so they are very simple to follow.  There are a couple of recipe ideas that I recognise from Annabel's other books for slightly older children but I also find it quite comforting to see some recognisable flavour combinations from her weaning books which build upon baby recipes and turn them into dishes for more grown up children.

Chicken Tagliatelle Ragu

The photography throughout the book is perfect for getting Lara inspired by the food.  She will quite happily browse the book for ideas for her own dinner and will come away with a week's worth of ideas of things she wants to eat.  Recent quick wins have been the Peach and Rasberry Crumbles and Tagliatelle Ragu which we made with chicken mince which was a first for us.

I don't think there are any groundbreaking recipes in Annabel Karmel's Quick & Easy Toddler recipes but several of her oriental style recipes are a little out of the ordinary (Orange and Soy Sole for instance) but for me I like to have this book as a means of mealtime inspiration for the girls.

Quick & Easy Toddler Recipes is available in both hardback and Kindle edition on Amazon.

Lara Joins...The Weekend Box Club

This weekend Lara and I spent quite some time together getting crafty, cooking and playing in the garden inspired by the contents of a Weekend Box.  The Weekend Box is a subscription club where, every fortnight, your child received a parcel packed with weekend ideas for children; creative, healthy and green activities to keep your little ones occupied throughout the weekend.

 

Last Friday Lara was unwell and couldn't go to nursery so I stayed at home with her and we cracked open the Weekend Box. The little box came with everything we would need to complete two different craft activities, a gardening activity, cookery activity and a story activity... and it really was pretty much everything we needed.  In a regular box you receive 4 activities in each box.

At first I was a little sceptical about the concept of the Weekend Box but I think I've been won around.  As a family who already do quite a few craft activities together, actively encourage the girls to help us in the garden and ALWAYS have little helpers in the kitchen, I wasn't originally sure that the Weekend Box presented good value for money because many of the contents of the box are already things we have around the house.  But then when I thought about it I realised that with a regular subscription you aren't just paying for the materials to conduct the activities but also for the inspiration and the reference sheets - each activity comes with instructions on a printed sheet which can be used again and again.

 

OK, so we are quite unusual in that we have odds and ends of craft materials and gardening products available for the girls at most times but for many families, it would cost an awful lot of money to go out and buy full-sized versions of all of the materials provided in the Weekend Box and they may never be used again. So yes, now I've thought about it, I think that the Weekend Box is pretty good value for money, especially when you sign up to a regular delivery.

On Friday Lara got busy with the creative activities.  She made these fun pom pom animals from wool, PVA glue, sticky eyes and foam pieces.  Then Lara was inspired by a green activity which involved up-cycling fabric off-cuts to make fabric letters... she chose to decorate the letters from her own name.

On Saturday Lara and I planted Basil seeds in the garden in a recycled egg box.  Lara absolutely loves being out in the garden and always seems her happiest when planting and watering.

 

On Sunday Lara and I made carrot soup for lunch using our Weekend Box recipe and the special sachet of magic spices.  Unfortunately Lara was a grumpy boots and refused to try the soup she had made (she's always been a bit funny about soup... right from day one).  But me and Mr. B absolutely loved the soup!

We still have a story activity to do together which involves creating a story from the characters on the prompt sheet... perhaps we will do that as we drive off on our holiday!

For me one of the most admirable things about the Weekend Box is the green credentials.  100% of the contents of each box is recyclable and 95% of it came from recycled sources in the first place.  The instruction cards are all printed with acid- and alcohol-free inks on FSC approved paper.  Lots of the activities in the Weekend Boxes are designed to encourage in our children an interest in eco activities and the world around us.

I think that the Weekend Box would be perfect for children from about 3 years to 8 years and would work brilliantly well during school holidays when you need lots of inspiration for ideas for activities for children.  You can follow Weekend Box on Twitter (@WeekendBoxClub) or Facebook (/WeekendBoxClub) for exclusive content, competitions and much more!

YOU CAN GET YOUR FIRST WEEKENDBOX FOR JUST £5 WITH THE CODE WBEMMA2