Cooking with toddlers - Frozen pea humous (dairy free, sesame free, vegan, syn free)

Frozen pea houmous is so ridiculously easy to make, and really fresh and tasty and a huge hit with a certain dairy, egg, and soya free toddler I know. 

I don't know about you, but the coverage in the press recently about salt levels in humous were a bit of a shock. Harry, like so many toddlers, loves humous, and the reports stunned me - especially as he loves to 'dip dip' any extra veggies he might have with his supper in some. Normally I would dismiss reports like this as scaremongering, but toddler's kidneys aren't able to process high levels of salt so, ironically I've been careful with most processed food, just not humous. 

Harry has been 'helping' me in the kitchen for a while, sometimes he just likes to stir things, he loves to roll out pastry and biscuit dough, and helps beautifully with tasting. Other days he likes to watch, be it in his high chair, at my feet, stood on a chair or sat on the worktop. I know it's not the safest way to help, but our floor isn't level so chairs etc wobble.

This is so easy, and a real store cupboard standby dish - I know it's lovely to be able to use fresh ingredients, but all so often I find myself without what I need and these days, being on a strict budget means that it's much more thrifty to use frozen peas. And really, with the exception of M - who doesn't have a bag of frozen peas in their freezer - I'm almost entirely sure it's the law!

You can easily make this with a stick blender instead of a food processor - as it's a small quantity I find the stick blender easier. Or if you like your humous to have a rougher texture, use a large bowl and a potato masher



Frozen pea and mint humous
Dairy free, soya free, Vegan

1 cup of frozen peas
200g of tinned chickpeas (roughly half a tin - if you're egg free, keep the liquid from the tin for egg free meringues or marshmallows!)
3-4 mint leaves - but this is entirely optional
Half a clove of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons olive oil

Measure out your cup of frozen peas and cover them in boiling water - leave for 3-4 minutes
Pop half a tin of chickpeas into a bowl
Add the mint and garlic to the bowl
Drain and add the peas
With your stick blender, blitz the ingredients until they're a texture you're happy with - we go for fairly smooth
Add the olive oil if you feel you need it - we didn't, the damp peas gave enough wetness to the mixture

This keeps nicely in the fridge for 3-4 days, but seems to vanish much faster in our house!

Preserves part 4 million and twelve: mint and apple jelly

More preserves... yes there are more things I can be given free (or nearly free) and turn into jams, jellies and cordials. I just tweeted Jules of Butcher, baker to say how satisfying I'm finding it being able to turn free (or nearly free) food into something that will last me long after the fresh ingredients would have found their way into the compost bin.

Last time Mark went home his Mum sent him back with a pillowcase, bag of crapapples, a large bunch of mint and the instructions for 3 different types of preserves. I've already blogged the plum jam, and so this is my first experience of a jelly. It's very similar to a jam except that you strain the fruit after you've cooked it down, so that when you boil it up with the sugar, it's a clear liquid. What you end up with is beautiful, an amazing amber colour in the case of the crabapples and an almost clear set with tiny flecks of mint for the apple and mint. Just gorgeous, as the sunlight catches them they actually twinkle.

I made this with Bramley apples, that had been epically reduced in Sainsburys - I am such a fan of the reductions in their fruit and veg departments for preserving - the other week it was strawberries for 19p and this was 9p for 4 huge Bramley apples (the last 2 I've just stewed up with some spices and a little sugar, then frozen to have on porridge as it gets colder).

Apple and Mint Jelly

Ingredients

2.5 lbs cooking apples
1 pint distilled white vinegar
Sugar
3-4 taablespoons chopped mint


Equipment

Preserving pan
Pillowcase
Chair
Bowl
Measuring jug
Wooden spoon
Saucer
Jam jars

Method

Wash and chop the apples (don't bother to peel or core) then put in your preserving pan with 1 pint of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 45 minutes - until they're soft
Add the vinegar and boil rapidly for another 5 minutes (beware, it smells really really strong)
Spoon the pulp into the pillowcase - which you've suspended intricately on an upturned chair over a bowl and allow the pulp to strain for at least 12 hours. You mustn't squeeze the pillowcase no matter how much you want to or feel like no liquid is coming out as that'll make your jelly cloudy.  I was incredibly restrained and managed not to.

After the 12 hours, put your saucer in the fridge
Now measure the strained liquid into a measuring jug and for every pint of liquid add 1lb of sugar to your preserving pan. I ended up with 1lb and 12oz of sugar in mine.
Heat the liquid and sugar gently, stirring all the while until the sugar has dissolved
Now boil it rapidly for about 10 minutes until the setting point is reached - test using your saucer
Stir in the chopped mint, jar up promptly and there you have it - apple and mint jelly. Ideal with your next roast pork (personally, I'm planning a roast shoulder of pork just so I can try it)