Jottage from Cambridge - Chard and New Potato Curry

I happened to watch a little bit of Saturday Kitchen the other week, and they were raving on and on about Jersey Royals. To me potatoes, whether they’re from the Basics range or Taste the Difference, taste pretty much the same though, for aesthetic reasons, I do like it when they’re nice and yellow inside. Well anyway Jersey Royals were on offer in Sainsbury’s so I decided to buy a bag and use them to make the Chard and new potato curry (RC Veg, p.24). It was Theo’s birthday last week and I thought it would make a nice Birthday tea (followed by an M&S Lemon Tart). Although it was very easy finding Jersey Royals tracking down some chard proved tricky. They certainly don’t stock chard in our Sainsbury’s, so Tristan and I trekked down Mill Road on a mission.

 I started at Al-Amin, the largest grocer’s on Mill Road and infamous for its owner who ran for the position of Cambridge University’s Chancellor when Sainsbury’s expressed an interest in the site opposite (Lord Sainsbury was also running to be Chancellor and did, in the end, win the majority of the votes), but the guy at the till clearly hadn’t heard of the stuff. According to Wikipedia chard has a variety of names: Swiss chard, silverbeet, perpetual spinach, spinach beet, crab beet, bright lights – but I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t lurking with the spinach and lettuce with this name or any other in Al-Amin, or indeed in Arjuna where they also sell a variety of greener than green green veg. 

Garlic, chilli and ginger being after bashing

Tesco doesn’t stock chard either – when you type it into the search engine the website helpfully asks: do you mean ‘hard’? and brings up a selection of Hard Skin and Nail Files and Hard Skin Remover – not quite what I was looking for. So where can you buy the stuff? Well, certainly in Waitrose where chard appears in their ‘Limited Selection’ range (chard is in season in April and May so I suppose they might only sell it in those months.) With Waitrose being so far away I ended up substituting chard for kale which Hugh himself recommends. I don’t find kale all that interesting to eat but the dish was very enjoyable. The potatoes were as yellow as the pudding to follow and all the flavours came together in a very satisfying way. It was perhaps a bit too hot for my liking so I’d use half a chilli next time rather than a whole one. I would certainly try and make it with chard too as, having learned how nutritious the stuff is, I am determined to find some! 

Tasty, though a little too hot

Jottage from Lancaster - Fried Fish Fillets with Herbs and Lemon

I had the rainbow trout I had bought from the worst Sainsburys in the world - Morecambe - and it really needed eating. I decided to have a shot at the Fried Fish Fillets with Herbs and Lemon. I had remembered to buy capers at last and so the vital ingredients were all to hand - I even had the right herbs and a lemon. I decided to roast some carrots, baby potatoes and parsnips with it - making a nice veggie accompaniment. Hugh has had a big influence on me this - I rarely use only one vegetable and more often than not, potato takes a back seat. However this wasn't an unqualified success. I should have added some nice green veggies like leek or cabbage, which would have gone better, I think. And the herbs and lemon mix was very lemony. I'm not sure it was the best thing to have with the Rainbow Trout - it seemed to need thick fish to take up the real lemoniness of the juices. But even with these reservations it was very nice and I am pleased with myself for cooking fish twice in 2 days. I should have cooked the trout in the parcels and the haddock with the lemon and herbs and a more experienced fish cook would probably know that.

Jottage from Lancaster - Fried Fish Fillets with Herbs and Lemon

Fried Fish with Herbs and Lemon

I had the rainbow trout I had bought from the worst Sainsburys in the world - Morecambe - and it really needed eating. I decided to have a shot at the Fried Fish Fillets with Herbs and Lemon. I had remembered to buy capers at last and so the vital ingredients were all to hand - I even had the right herbs and a lemon. I decided to roast some carrots, baby potatoes and parsnips with it - making a nice veggie accompaniment. Hugh has had a big influence on me this - I rarely use only one vegetable and more often than not, potato takes a back seat. However this wasn't an unqualified success. I should have added some nice green veggies like leek or cabbage, which would have gone better, I think. And the herbs and lemon mix was very lemony. I'm not sure it was the best thing to have with the Rainbow Trout - it seemed to need thick fish to take up the real lemoniness of the juices. But even with these reservations it was very nice and I am pleased with myself for cooking fish twice in 2 days. I should have cooked the trout in foil and the haddock with the lemon and herbs and a more experienced fish cook would probably know that. I'm planning to buy more fish on Saturday and will try this again.

Jottage from Lancaster - A Fishy Dilemma 2

I decided on the Roast Fish Fillets with Roast Potatoes in the end. I had (almost) all the ingredients and I could add mushy squash as a vegetable (but with sweet potatoes instead of squash - it is Thanksgiving after all). The results were rather good. The sole, lemon was melting and the potatoes as crisp as you could wish for. I didn't cook as many potatoes as on the picture in the book - and in the end I forgot that bay leaves were still on my shopping list from the time I didn't buy the capers but here is the result. Definitely one to make again.

From the book

Mine

Jottage from Cambridge - Soggy Weetabix or How to Start Weaning

The word ‘weaning’ in the context of babies is incredibly annoying. It seems to imply that they’re coming off something, so you could easily assume that, sometime between four and six months, you should stop feeding them milk, and exclusively offer solid food. Nothing could be further from the truth. Milk remains the most important source of

nourishment for babies until they’re at least a year old, and probably even beyond. So, when Tristan was five months old and I decided to start weaning I didn’t confine my feeding bras to the back of the wardrobe, but rather thought more carefully about the best time to
give Tristan milk feeds so that he was hungry enough to eat three meals a day too.
If you haven’t waited until the baby is six months old then you’re bound to start them off on baby rice and pureed carrot or, if you’re feeling really adventurous, both mixed together. There was quite a build-up of excitement to giving Tristan his first meal, and my husband and I both eagerly awaited his reaction as we launched the
Tommy Tippee spoon into his mouth. When I put the first spoonful of carrot in his mouth he gave me a terrified look, certain that this orange coloured mush was going to poison him. However, somehow the second spoonful wasn’t quite as bad as the first, and an ice cube sized portion of carrot was demolished within a few minutes. Of course the same meal took much longer the next day, but that’s just how weaning goes. Some days your baby’s inner Popeye comes out and he can’t get enough spinach, and then you’re worried that he’ll only ever eat mangos which are a particular shade of yellow. 

Overall my experience has been very positive though and Tristan, so long as he’s not too tired (note that overtiredness is the reason why most babies start yelling and arching their backs at the first sight of a spoon) eats pretty much everything, with the exception of lentils which, quite understandably, he absolutely loathes. The ice cube trays so beloved of Karmel and co. have now been replaced with little pots
(note that all the mummys in the know get their Tupperware from Poundland), and generally Tristan eats good sized portions. Within a few days I had moved on from carrots to butternut squash soup (with
extra cumin to give it a nice warm flavour), and really any combination of the following: spinach, potato, sweet corn, courgettes, baked beans, peas, and peppers, mixed up with meat or fish. So, now at
just over seven months, a typical day looks like the following:
7am: milk
8am Breakfast: Bowl of porridge mixed with grated apple or mashed up
banana, or Weetabix with milk. For us breakfast is always the easiest
meal, mainly because Tristan adores porridge. Weetabix, which I used
to dread having to eat as a child, I now consider one of the greatest
inventions of the last century.
10am: milk
11.30 Lunch: I generally do baby-led at lunchtime which is usually
something on toast, such as cheese and apple, (see Baby & Toddler
Cookbook p.175) sardines, cream cheese or baked beans. Unless you
weigh the food before and after your baby has spent time with it
(Hugh’s advice is that meals should last no longer than half an hour
which I think is just about right) it’s impossible to know how much
they’ve eaten, and indeed it’s incredible where you find half-eaten
bits of bread. Therefore I often give Tristan banana mixed with
full-fat natural or Greek yogurt afterwards just to make sure that
he’s eaten enough.
4pm milk
5pm Teatime:  I used to make a special meal for Tristan, but now I try
and give him the leftovers of whatever my husband and I have eaten the
night before. The only real no-no for babies (besides honey which is
the latest fad thing to avoid as it’s been associated with botulism,
and certain types of fish which contain lots of mercury) is salt
(sugar too isn’t allowed). Low-salt stock cubes are the answer (I
apologise Hugh but, however much time I might have to spare, I will
never bring myself to make my own stock), and unsalted butter. So
Tristan happily eats minced beef, risotto and any kind of meat stew
for his dinner. If the latter is a bit watery, which it often is after
a spell in the freezer, I add baby rice or baby pasta to thicken it
up.
7pm milk

Despite eating all this food and, since you’re no doubt wondering, I’ll tell you that Tristan still doesn’t sleep through the night, but demands a couple of night feeds, usually around 11pm and 3am. However,
although I moan all the time about the fact that my baby still isn’t sleeping through, there is something quite nice about touching base with Tristan during the night. We snuggle up together while everyone else is sleeping and think about all the lovely things we’re going to eat in the days ahead.

Jottage from Cambridge – Season and Unseasonality

Food is not something I know much about. I have never been one of those people who buys fruit and vegetables in a particular season – I’ve even been known to eat Cadbury’s Cream eggs at least two months either side of Easter. So, when my mother gave me a copy of River Cottage Everyday I thought it would sit snugly with my other reasonably untouched cookery books. It still might be between Jamie Oliver and Delia Smith but for the fact that suddenly food has become much more important in our household. This is all down to ‘weaning’ – that very daunting process between your baby only consuming milk and them eyeing up the sweetie counter at the supermarket.


My sister assured me that weaning was great fun, and indeed I have loved every minute blending up bits of carrot, sweet potato, butternut squash and all the other amber coloured vegetables that Annabel Karmel (the guru of weaning) suggests you puree into a mush and feed your baby. However the market for blenders has no doubt been damaged irreparably by Gill Rapley. Rapley is synonymous with ‘baby led’ weaning - the latest fad of new mums who assemble with their Pumpkin Patch kids at the Cambridgeshire Childrens’ Centres. In fact the first question anyone asks now after that all important ‘is your baby sleeping through the night?’ is ‘are you doing baby-led’? Anyone who hasn’t heard of this latest phenomenon is looked at disdainfully, and an assumption is made that their baby will be an impossibly fussy eater who won’t be able to hold a spoon until their second birthday (Rapley claims). 


There are great assumptions made for ‘baby led’, and I was certain that Tristan would be the perfect candidate. However, owing to the fact that at five months he was still waking every couple of hours, I was advised to start weaning early to save my sanity. Because baby-led means that you only give your child solid food (you can give them soups, yogurts etc. but you never give them the instruction to open their mouth while you shove a spoon in, instead they take the spoon from you and feed themselves) – which they don’t have the ability to digest until they’re six months old – I began to puree instead. When Tristan hit six months I began to give him solid foods, although still relying on my blender, and very rarely having the courage to let him take the spoon for fear of the walls, carpet, furnishings etc. being forever porridge stained in our rented accommodation. 


My freezer is now full of little pots (I have become fairly obsessive about Tupperware recently) of lamb stew, minced beef mixed with baby pasta and salmon risotto. New inspiration came with the acquisition of the River Cottage Baby & Toddler Cookbook which sits beside River Cottage Everyday not on a dusty shelf, but within easy reach on the kitchen counter. I have got through a huge number of recipes already, and Tristan just as easily wolfs down the Chicken Curry (see p.223 of Everyday) as the Apple & Spelt Stars (see p.234 Baby & Toddler). So, food is now very important and the some of my trials and tribulations of feeding my baby son will be recorded in this blog. In addition I hope to tell our readers about the amazing food stores on Mill Road, a thriving shopping street to the east of the city centre.