Dairy free puddings for a CMPA baby - rice pudding recipe

I've previously written a post on breakfast ideas for a CMPA baby - but lately our head scratcher has been puddings.

We mainly give Harry fruit for pudding - it's naturally dairy free, because I'm doing Slimming World we always have lots in and he is happy with it. However, because of our tricky start with weight gain owing to the undiagnosed CMPA fruit isn't great in terms of calorie density. Over the past 6 months I've experimented with the following:

• Refined sugar free banana muffins - I thought they were too dry, Harry loved them
• lots of coconut yoghurts - as per this post Coyo has been our favourite, but the poor love seems to have been coconut yoghurted out! 
• The occaisional rusk - I know they're full of sugar, but they're dairy free, portable and before Harry's teeth came through (oddly since the top 2 came in he's lost interest in them) he loved that he could suck them
• Fresh fruit - chopped up grapes, bananas (slightly constipating), dried prunes soaked in apple juice or water, blueberries, kiwi fruit, apple and pear slices have all been favourites. 
• Stewed fruit - prune, apple and pear is his absolute favourite - I've stirred this into yoghurt lots for him. I don't add sugar to this.
• Homemade wholemeal toast with almond butter and mashed banana

All of these can either be given as a loaded spoon, heaped onto the highchair tray to be eaten with fingers, or are already finger food.

Just lately a growth spurt and the onset of cruising and an odd, head-led crawl have meant that Harry's weight gain has slowed again. Keen to avoid the wrath of the Health visitor (a well known phenomenom in these parts) I thought we'd better up those calories so have been making individual portions of baked rice pudding.

We use Oatly creamy oat for rice puds - it has a mild taste and although the packet says it works like single cream, I've had no problems with it splitting.

Dairy free rice pudding (makes 4 baby-sized individual portions)

50g short grain or pudding rice
250ml carton of Oatly creamy oat (found in Waitrose or Holland & Barrett)
100ml almond milk (or whatever you use as a dairy free milk substitute. I have made this with nutramigen and whilst I thought it was disgusting Harry ate it quite happily)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Lots of grated nutmeg on top

You could add sugar, but I didn't as I prefer to not add sugar - if Harry had hated it I'd have made it again with about 10-15g but as it was, he was very happy with this

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees
Wash your rice until the water runs clear. I would never do this normally, but when I was asking around for recommendations everyone said to wash it!
Lightly oil (I used coconut) small individual pie pans - I use these ones from Lakeland 
In a jug, mix the rice, almond milk, Oatly and vanilla extract.
Separate the pudding between the four individual pans
Grate lots of nutmeg over the top - I have to say I went with my tastes on the nutmeg front and luckily Harry loved it- you might want to be a bit more cautious! 
Bake in the oven for half an hour, or until set with a bit of wobble

Allow to cool, tip out of the tin and either slice or break up as a baby led weaning pudding, or spoon feed if that's how you do things. I sometimes top it with some stewed fruit - but it does make a lot of mess! 

Next up on our pudding journey is going to be an attempt to recreate an amazing dairy free ice cream I had at a Lakeland summer event. I think I've found the recipe. I'm not sure I'll be sharing it with Harry though!

Spicing up my leftovers with Gran Luchito

Just before we moved, Gran Luchito sent me a couple of jars of their chilli honey and paste. The trauma of moving meant that they didn't really get touched for a while and although I knew they were in my cupboards I was doing a lot of what we call 'point and pray' cookery so they didn't get an opportunity to feature.

A couple of weeks back I used the leftover roast beef to cobble together a keema-esque curry. I used my usual spices: cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli, garlic, ginger and garam masala but still felt that something was missing. In went some of the smoked chilli paste, and while I'm sure it's not in any way shape or form authentic, it was exactly what I had in mind.

Last week, I was doing a leftovers lunch - the recipe for which is below, and again a good teaspoonful of the chilli paste, plus a couple of teaspoonfuls of the honey were exactly what I needed to lift it.

I find the smokey flavour of the chilli really works - there's no discernable punch of pure heat, but a much more complex - almost chocolatey aspect. Whilst I'm not a fan of food that is purely hot (there was an incident once of sharing out a plate of chilli that I couldn't bear it was so violently spiced) I love balance of heat that smoked chilli gives.

Leftovers lunch

Cooked rice - any quantity (I know some people have issues with leftover rice causing food poisoning and I don't dispute that at all. I just choose not to worry too much about it as I'm only cooking for myself and M.)
Grated ginger - about a thumb sized piece
2-3 cloves of garlic
Chilli to taste
Half tsp Gran Luchito chilli paste
Leftover veggies - I used the odd half onions, peppers, carrots, some slightly elderly mushrooms and some sweetcorn lingering around, but equally you could probably use most anything you have to hand. I wouldn't try potatoes though.
1-2 eggs
Soy sauce
Gran Luchito honey
Leftover herbs - I used coriander, but equally have used

Heat some oil up in a wok and add the chilli, garlic and ginger. Add the onions and cook down, then add your other veggies and stir until they're starting to soften
Tip in the cooked rice and continue to stir so that it breaks up
Add soy sauce, a couple of teaspoons of honey and continue to stir
Make a well in the centre of your pan and break 1-2 eggs in and stir them continuously to scramble. Stir the eggy mix into the rice and veggies
Add any herbs you have knocking around and taste to check your seasoning. Add more chilli, honey, soy etc to taste
Serve in a bowl and eat from your knees while pondering excel spreadsheets

I like this meal becuase it eeks the rice and veggies out for a few more meals. Especially towards the end of the week when you've not really got enough of anything to do anything specific with them, this kind of 'fridge bottom' recipe means that you don't end up with a solitary half onion mouldering in the salad tray. For me it fulfills the need at lunchtime for something hot, tasty and filling and keeps me going without that dreaded afternoon slump.

As less of a leftovers recipe, and more of a formula I'm going to enter this into this month's credit crunch munch - not only is it cheap in itself as all the ingredients tend to be fresh or convenient storecupboard staples that I have in the house, but having this to hand means I don't find myself tempted by the delights of the sandwich shop and save myself around £5 per day!

Credit crunch munch is normally hosted by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla of Fab food for all. This month Michelle is hosting, and I do like the sound of her pull apart bread.

Here the goose is cooked: Quick and easy chicken curry

Apologies for the state of the bowl, I only noticed after I had finished eating. That's what a meetings tastic Monday will do to you readers. Avoid!

Goose? Chicken? It's all poultry, and I was really struggling with lyrics involving chicken. Well no one writes a musical about roast dinners do they?

So, another episode of my series 101 ways with chicken. Leftover chicken curry. Much like most of these recipes this can be done with fresh chicken, but these days I just find the cost of that prohibitive, so chicken dishes only come around when there is leftover to be used up.

This is another dish with fond memories, my Dad introduced me to it years back (I'm sure somewhere along the line it came from a recipe book, but it could be entirely invented) and I must say everytime I cook it I think back to his love of cooking. Very much a seasoned cook, prone to just chucking things in, it was his confidence that rubbed off on me after university and encouraged me to be more creative.

So, quick and easy chicken curry

Splash of flavourless oil
Garlic, chilli and ginger to taste
2 onions, finely diced
4 or 5 tomatoes chopped
1 tsp garam massala
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
Shredded or chopped leftover roast chicken - about 200g
Bag of spinach or a good head of spring greens - shred the greens
100ml of double cream
150ml of water

Naan/ rice to serve

First off, shred your greens (if you're using bagged spinach skip this step) and put them in a colander. Pour a kettleful of water over them to start the wilting process.
Using a big pan, heat the oil with garlic chilli and ginger, I use a couple of red chillis, about a thumb sized piece of ginger, grated and 2 or 3 cloves of crushed garlic - but that's just to suit our taste buds, if you like spicy curry - go for it.
When this is sizzling add your onions and cook slowly until they're really soft (at least 10 minutes)
Add the chopped tomatoes and continue to cook down until they go pulpy
Add your spices and cook out their rawness for at least a couple of minutes
Put the chicken in the pan and continue to cook until it's heated through(if you're using raw chicken, cook this for about 8 minutes or until it's cooked through)
Add the cream and allow the heat to let this down and make a creamy sauce. Add the water to let it down further, and stir in your (wilted) greens
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary

All in all if using leftover cooked chicken this takes about half an hour to forty minutes. This quantity serves four, but you could bulk it out by adding extra onions and greens.

This works brilliantly with Greek Yoghurt - the regular one, not the 0% fat, as it needs the stability the fat gives to it - instead of cream. Equally if I'm being really abstemious I just add a couple of tablespoons of cream and use vegetable stock to make up the rest of the liquid

I serve this with plain supermarket naan, wrapped up in baking parchment I've run briefly under the tap and scrunched up. It goes into a 180 degree oven for the time it takes the curry to cook - this makes lovely fluffy soft naan, as otherwise I find supermarket naan bread to be a little leathery.

Again if you want it to serve more, serve with rice as well.

Meal planning Wednesday: The midweek edition

You may have noticed that it's not Monday, and I'm not trying to sidle in late to Meal Planning Monday with a note from my Mum. It's midweek, and I'm proudly only just doing my meal plan.

Wednesday: Nasi Goreng
Thursday: Fridge bottom soup (swede, parsnip, carrot and celery) with Herman bread
Friday: Is it cheating to say leftover soup & Nasi Goreng?
Saturday: Bratwurst, baked potatoes and red cabbage
Sunday: Chicken and leek pie

Baking: A Herman, and a beetroot chocolate cake

Lunches this week have been mainly fruit based, but once I've made the soup, it'll be that in my new flask.

My main reason for lateness is that I've been teaching in Kent this week, and I'm disorganised, and seem to be suffering with some kind of permanently full up and slightly nauseous thing. Anyway, the Riverford veg box arrived today and I made good use of it, and a leftover sauce from my Fusion Foods challenge in a protein and veg rich Nasi Goreng.

Nasi Goreng

1 cup brown, basmati rice. Cooked
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Dried galangal to taste
1 red chilli, chopped
250g chicken
100g cooked prawns
1 cup edamame beans
1 cup sweetcorn
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 carrots, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
1 jar WorldFoods Fusion nasi goreng sauce

Heat up the oil in a large pan or wok and add the spices, cooking until they sizzle
Add the chicken and cook until browned
Add the vegetables and stir fry until lightly cooked
Stir the sauce through
Add the cooked rice and stir until combined
Serve, on the sofa, in a bowl, with a large glass of water, wearing pyjamas.

Meal Planning Monday: A truncated week take 2?

Well last week was, what I think is called in the industry, a complete and utter unmitigated disaster! Those of you who follow me on Twitter will be aware that on Tuesday night I came down with a migraine, and pretty much as soon as I took my sumatriptan had a seizure, and then another one whilst still post ictal. This meant an admission to hospital and poor Mark had to take the lead on cooking.

So we're going to try and do better this week at Pantry HQ, I have rested all weekend, and apart from baking and some pottering, done very very little in a bid to boost my energy and general wellbeing.  I don't know if it's going to work, but I'm exercising, eating healthily and resting - what else can I do?! Answers on a postcard please.

Right, where was I? Oh yes, meal planning

Monday: Chicken and spinach curry (still to be blogged)

Tuesday: Well, Tuesday is my slightly belated birthday present (my fault, I just couldn't get organised - there's irony in there somewhere) so we're off for Afternoon tea at the Ritz, I suspect we won't need or want dinner.

Wednesday & Thursday - I re-embrace the joy that is a Beefeater.

Friday: I think I'm going to do my Fusion Taste Team challenge of Tom Yum rice that was ousted by an Indian takeaway that I nearly fell asleep in this week.

Saturday: We're out with friends

Sunday: We're at my Mum's so I'm hoping for her roast beef

I'm sticking with lots of raw foods, so salads and fruit at lunchtime, and yoghurt, fruit, grape nuts and raw honey for breakfast.

Oh and lots of satsuma and cardamom drizzle cake, and Iced buns to eat too! Oops...

Nasi Goreng: add your own showtune here...

It's that time of year again when our thoughts turn to new shoes, a new pencil case, and of course - what to put in our packed lunch box. For me when I was at school it was always sandwiches - peanut butter and banana were my favourite - and one of my best friends Liz, taught me well that you add the banana at lunchtime so it's not brown! These days I really struggle with sandwiches - Mark has them every day, and when I try I just find them dull. As an alternative I tend to go for salads in the summer (this week, pea shoots, feta, prawn, tomato and sprouted seeds - also known as everything that was reduced in Sainsburys).

In the colder months, I have a lot of homemade soups, sometimes with homemade bread (when I'm watching what I eat, without), also leftovers. Now these aren't practical for a child's lunchbox unless you have a thermos - Lakeland do some pricy, but wide necked ones that I think would be amazing for my lunches, actually I look at them and think about ordering every time. There has to be a cheaper alternative for kids out there and I'll keep my eyes peeled.

With my lunch I have fruit - a lot of fruit, this week it's black grapes, plums, a banana and an apple and normally a Nakd bar. This allows me to graze throughout the day at work, which works for me if I don't have time for a proper lunch break. Mark has crisps, a sausage roll, peice of cheese, cereal bar, a banana and some dried fruit. We're quite different, but it's what suits us best.

 This week, I'm having a Pantry take on Nasi goreng - an Indonesian rice salad. Unusually for me,  I'm straying into the realms of cooking with tofu for the first time. Now, I had most of the base ingredients in my fridge and pantry, but had to buy the tofu, and edamame beans. However the amount of lunches this has made is extraordinary. There's definitely enough for the rest of the week, and I'll portion out the rest in the freezer for next week too. You could serve this hot - in a thermos or if your office has a microwave, or eat it cold as a rice salad.

 Penelope's Pantry does Nasi Goreng

Light olive oil
2 cups of brown basmati rice - cooked and cooled
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp lazy chilli
2 thumb size peices of ginger grated
4 spring onions finely chopped (all the way up - use the green parts too)
1 cup of chopped red pepper
1 cup of edamame beans (I used frozen)
1 cup of sweetcorn (again I used frozen)
200g tofu (I used smoked) finely chopped
2 eggs beaten
3 tablespoons of soy sauce

Cook the rice in double the volume of boiling water (I use Delia's infallible absorbtion method) and leave to cool down.
Heat up some olive oil in a big wok or large pan, and when it's hot, add the spring onions, garlic, chilli and ginger. Cook through until this mix becomes aromatic - stirring all the while
Add the rice, and stir through so that the base ingredients aren't stuck on the bottom of the pan, but are mixed through (this way your garlic won't burn and go bitter)
Add the pepper, edamame beans, sweetcorn and tofu and cook through, stirring for about 5 minutes
Make a well in the middle of your pan and add your beaten eggs. Stir them so that they scramble and then mix through the rest of the rice
Cook through for another couple of minutes and then add the soy sauce.

Now I've tasted this and feel it's missing something - thinking back to my Lifechanging soup (TM) I think it's the sourness that it needs an edge - a friend has recommended adding a tablespoon of the pickling vinegar from a jar of pickled veg. I don't have any in, so will go without but would add that as a change for next time.

I think it's worth mentioning that traditionally Nasi Goreng would have chicken and prawns added, but costs at the moment mean I'm reducing my meat intake again. The tofu worked out far cheaper for the quantity that this made. Whilst the eggs make this unsuitable for vegans, those could easily be left out, and if you're a hardened carnivore or pescatarian again, amend it to suit you.
So that's my packed lunches sorted for the forseeable. A tasty, veggie alternative to sandwiches.

Chicken and mushroom risotto - one chicken many ways

As part of last week's leftovers marathon, I made (as I often do when faced with a roast chicken) stock and then risotto. Sometimes I make extra stock so that I can have soup for the freezer as well. I didn't manage that this week, mainly owing to falling asleep and letting the stock reduce down for an hour too long. What can I say? It happens to the best of us?

A friend of mine gave me her basic risotto recipe, and I've been using and adapting it for a couple of years now. I'm embarrased to say that this is the first time I've managed to take a semi passable photo of a plate of it, normally it looks like grey ricey gunge which isn't appetising if you can't smell it.

I suppose like all rice based recipes, it's important to be aware that rice absorbs according to it's own mood, but basically you want double volume liquid to rice. I know you're supposed to keep stirring and stirring risotto and truth be told I enjoy that, I find it relaxing and some time in that I can zone out and just focus on the actual doing as opposed to thinking as I do in the rest of my waking and working hours. However, where this risotto is concerned, if you make it in a non stick pan, the odd five minute potter into the garden, or to make a cup of tea, isn't crisis inducing. Similarly neither is the wine situation, I've done this with good white wine, cheap white wine, no white wine and with sherry (surprisingly tasty) none of these have ever been to the detriment of the final dish. Similarly I add mushrooms and thyme because I like that combination, adapt this to your liking or that of your family.

Firstly you need to make your stock - strip your chicken carcass of any usable meat (I do this after 2 servings of roast dinner, 2 servings of leftover roast chicken and veg and 3 rounds of chicken sandwiches) and pop that meat in a tupperware container in the fridge. I'm quite nifty with my fingers and try and get all edible meat off the bones. The rest of the carcass goes into a stock pot with 4 litres of water, a carrot an onion, a handful of peppercorns, a stick of celery and some salt. This then is brought to the boil, simmered for 2 hours and strained. Pop into another tupperware in the fridge, and then you can do your risotto the next day.

Risotto

1 onion, choped finely
250g mushrooms chopped finely
Leftover chicken chopped up
1 large glass white wine
1 cup of risotto rice - I use arborio
Thyme (fresh or dried)
Butter
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Parmesan cheese

Warm approsimately 1 litre of chicken stock through in a pan and bring to the boil
Melt a knob of butter and some olive oil in a big non stick pan, add your onion and fry gently
Add the mushrooms and some thyme and cook down until they've stopped releasing water
Add a cup of rice and stir so it absorbs the liquid in the pan (only for a minute or 2)
Add in your white wine and stir as it bubbles away
Ladle by ladle stir in your hot stock, stirring all the while (or not, depending on your mood)
Season - be cautious with your salt as the parmesan is salty itself
When all is absorbed, and the rice is softand the risotto thick and unctuous, add another generous knob of butter, and some grated parmesan
Serves 4 generously with a salad
This freezes beautifully - I reheat over the hob and add some extra parmesan and butter just before serving.

Next time Owl biscuits for the Brownies, and salmon and greens.

And I know there's no Musical theatre reference here at all, you try and find an MT song with chicken in the lyrics!

Healing food: Salmon and greens

Firstly I should apologise for the dearth of posting over the last week or so. I've been feeling unwell since Sunday (which was entirely my own fault and due to the vast quantity of wine consumed on Saturday), but when I was still horribly poorly on Tuesday I realised that I had probably just done my usual and got myself run down. Scarily for me this usually precedes a chest infection so I've been doing my utmost to heal myself. This has meant lots of rest, fluids and fairly simple food.

Today I've worked from home and in a final bid to kill or cure, I made my stock healing meal. Fish, cooked in sherry, soy, chilli, garlic and ginger with pak choi and brown rice. It's not particularly posh and neither is it difficult, but it feels insanely healthy and the simplicity of it really does appeal to me when I'm unwell.

All I do is splash some sherry in a bowl, and add 2 grated cloves of garlic, lots of grated ginger, and 2 whole red chillis chopped up. I then add lots of soy sauce to this and just taste to check how it is.

I then line a baking tray with foil and place on this the pak choi (stems/ leaves/ technical term anyone?). On top of this goes the fish (I used salmon today as that's what I had in) and then the soy/ sherry mixture is poured over the top. I then close the foil up tight to make a parcel and bake it in the oven for about half an hour. While this is cooking I boil the rice (yes, still doing rice a la Delia - it's faultless so I see no reason to change).

Et voila! A big bowl of simple, healing food. This plus an early night, will hopefully sort me for once and for all!