Category Archives: Cooking

 {I can’t actually get any wflw posts to come up, so I guess I’m flying solo!}

Inspired by Annabel Karmel’s Chicken Sausage Snails from First Meals (one of my favorite 0-5 cookbooks, and my lifesaver when I suddenly became a first time parent of an 8 month old).

Snail bodies are chicken breast, grated apple, diced onion, parsley, fresh breadcrumbs and a little bit of curry powder, pulsed until smooth-ish in a food processor,  rolled into a mixture of flour and panko and pan fried.  The (completely disproportionate and oversized) shells are leftover mashed potato made into cakes.  The “sun” in the bowl is leftover fruit juice and yogurt broth from the “Pink Fruit Soup” kidlet made yesterday and mandarin oranges.  The salad “grass” received a ranch dressing fertilization before Kidlet would actually eat it.

Baby L loved the sausages and potato, but spit out the salad.  Kidlet ate his salad, the fruit, and a few bites of everything else and said he was full.  Who knows?!

I didn’t follow the recipe precisely, but the official version follows:

Chicken Sausage Snails

 

375 g (12 oz) raw, skinned boneless chicken breast

1 small onion, finely chopped

1/2 T. fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 chicken stock cube, crumbled

1 small apple, peeled & grated

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

Flour for coating

Vegetable oil for frying

 

500g (1 lb) potatoes, into chunks1 tbsp milk

15 g (1/2 oz) butter

 

Shredded cabbage

1 carrot, into thin slices

Frozen peas

Tomato ketchup

 

Put the chicken, onion, parsley, crumbled stock cube, apple and breadcrumbs into a food processor. Chop for a few seconds. Form the mixture into 4 sausages each about 12 cm (5 inches) long. Spread the flour on a plate and use to coat the sausages. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the sausages and sauté for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally or until browned on all sides and cook through. Meanwhile, place the potatoes in the bottom of a steamer, cover with water and cook until tender. Five minutes before the potatoes are cooked put the vegetables for decorating in the top of the steamer and cook until tender. Mash the potatoes with the milk and butter. To assemble, form the potato into 4 dome shapes (maybe you could use an ice-cream scoop) or you could create a spiral (using an piping bag). Decorate to create the spiral snail shell pattern using ketchup. Put a chicken sausage underneath each dome of potato. Use the steamed carrot sticks and peas to make the snails feelers, mouth and eyes. Arrange the cabbage as grass!

Posted by Kristen in Cooking

One of the sites that I like to visit is Little Nummies.  Kellie has a brilliant way of looking at food, taking common kid friendly ingredients that most moms would have on hand and elevating them into something cute for children.  Her culinary creations aren’t usually something you can transalte directly to a bento, but I often leave there thinking “I wouldn’t have thought to use [food X] in that way”, with inspiration for making it my own and making it work in a bento lunch. 

Since I am not making packed lunches right now (although we have day camp next week, so I’m planning on some cute summery or sports themed (its a sports camp) ones!), I’ve been trying to just make breakfasts and lunches a little bit fun and keep my hand in. Kellie recently posted Oscar the Oyster, and I thought I would make one as well.

Mine didn’t turn out nearly as cute.  Her pancakes stayed nice and flat so the top “shell” didn’t sink down on the sides like mine and it looks more mollusk like.  I made an oat bran pancake for the extra healthiness and they were just too thick and soft to maintain a crisp edge when propped up.  My banana eyes are out of proportion with my cake too.  And my chocolate chip eyes wouldn’t stick so I melted them a little and they smeared all over.

I added the blueberry “sea”, which I made by heating up fresh blueberries in a little bit of water and white grape juice until they popped, then I tossed in some new berries at the end for texture and a little squeeze of lemon for some brightness in flavor.  I thought that I might need to add a little cornstarch to thicken it up, but I left it cooking a little bit too long (caught it just this side of burning, eep!) and that thickened it up enough to make a nice syrup without any added thickeners.

Despite the flaws that I see, Kidlet said “Awwww, that’s so cute ma!” and gobbled it right up.  That’s what counts in the end!

Posted by Kristen in Cooking

Week 13 – Dave Lieberman

I forgot last week was an off week, which is a good thing.  I’ve been sick this week, and probably wouldn’t have gotten my recipe made.

I picked his Black Bean Soup.

10 slices bacon, finely chopped

2 medium onions, chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)

6 garlic cloves, pressed

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 cups canned chopped tomatoes

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon chili powder

4 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans, drained but not rinsed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 bunch cilantro

juice of 1/2 lime

Thinly sliced scallions, for garnish

Sour cream, for garnish

Grated cheddar, for garnish

Put the bacon into a large heavy pot and place it over medium heat. Cook until it starts to give up its fat, about 4 minutes. Stir in the onions and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until you can smell it, about 1 minute.



Add the broth, tomatoes, ketchup, Worcestershire, and chili powder. Stir in the beans, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the soup is bubbling gently and cook 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.





Meanwhile, pick off all the thick stems from the cilantro. Wash it and shake dry. Chop the cilantro coarsely and stir it into the soup when it has been simmering 10 minutes. cook until the soup is thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice. Serve with the garnishes

I followed the recipe to the letter up until the point of adding the beans (well, I halved the recipe, and used homemade stock instead of canned broth).  Then I tasted it and to me, it tasted like nothing except salt.  Now, we are sensitive to salt around here.  I don’t add it much when I’m cooking, nor do we salt at the table.  About 6 years ago  cut it out of my diet for health reasons, and because my hubby was diagnosed with high blood pressure.  So maybe a normal salter wouldn’t think so, but to me it was like a salt lick.

So I started looking for something to dilute it a bit and give it more flavor than just salt.  I added an extra couple cups of stock (homemade, no salt), and some cooked ground beef (from the freezer) and a can of diced green chilis — which is why the final result isn’t just a black bean soup ;)  After letting it simmer long enough for the meat to come up to temperature, I added the cilantro as directed and served. At that point it was edible.  Kidlet and I enjoyed it.  DH was ill and sleeping and didn’t try it.

Linked to the Food Netowrk Cooking Challenge at I Blame My Mother.  Check out more Dave Lieberman recipes this week!

Posted by Kristen in Cooking