Because Elizabeth took a look at the recipe section of this blog and thought 'you know what it needs? More recipes involving pulses, that's what...'
We are forever in her debt, of course. All the more so because this is a recipe that she actually made Before Having A Baby, which is promising in the extreme.

Make this, honestly, just make it. It's sooooo nice. And this recipe generally makes too much sauce so there's always some to freeze and serve to the baby with pasta shells on those days when the take-away menus are winking at you and you'd rather open your wrists than cook another family meal...

Okay, first things first I am a bit rubbish with measurements. What we're aiming for with the sauce is a bolognese-y type consistency and apart from that I make this recipe when I find myself with a big tub of plain yoghurt to use up. It's all storecupboard stuff. It looks like a lot of work but it isn't, it's just that I'm useless at writing recipes. 5 mins prep of the sauce and 30 mins cooking. Then walk away and leave it in the oven for 40-ish.

1/2 a pack of Puy lentils, (which I reckon is about 250g)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 or two carrots
1 or two sticks of celery
Some spices. Cinnamon or mixed spice is the type of thing. A good couple of heaped teaspoons
One can of plum tomatoes
Slosh of red wine, Marsala or Port, whatever's in the cupboard.
Tablespoon of tomato puree
1 red pepper
1 aubergine
About half a big tub of plain yoghurt, (which again I think should be about 200-300g's worth so a couple of wee tubs will also do the trick)
1 egg
Some mature cheddary cheese, if it's mild it'll taste a bit bleh in my humble opinion.

First make your bolognese-ish sauce, so chop and sweat your onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, add the chopped carrot and celery and cook down a bit. Then add the spices and gently, gently, gently fry. Add more olive oil, be generous if you want to, it's not like the rest of the recipe is high in fat. Rinse the lentils and fling them in, along with the tomatoes and good covering of water and simmer. I sometimes add a bay leaf as well if I remember.
 
While the sauce is cooking, stick a fork into the stalk of the red pepper and whack it onto the gas burner, turning it every so often as it blackens a bit. Put it in a plastic bag so the skin will steam off a bit and then rinse off the skin under a cold tap. If you can be bothered roasting it properly you could do that, but remember it doesn't really need to cook, just sweeten a bit, as it's going in the oven later.

It generally says on the pack that the lentils take 20 or so minutes to cook so at that point I taste the sauce and add the tomato puree and the booze to taste. I reckon another ten minutes or so makes the sauce nice and sludgy.  

Meanwhile, finely, finely slice your aubergine and preheat your oven to 180 degrees. You can thickly slice it if you prefer but the bugger will take all day to cook.

I use a square dish about 30cm x 30cm and I lay out, not particularly neatly, a layer of aubergine and one of the sauce, with a few bits of pepper on it, then aubergine then sauce with pepper etc, finishing with a layer of aubergine. I reckon I normally get about three layers and have sauce left over.

Mix your yoghurt, egg and a good few handfuls of grated cheese and pour it onto the top of the dish and whack it into the oven for 40-45 mins or until the topping looks delish and a knife goes easily through the aubergine. The topping will slightly souffle up a bit and taste Amazing, I promise. It freezes well and is one of those things that tastes even better the next day as leftovers.

"Great Nanna Peg's/Nanny Annie's potato cakes

This recipe is actually the Nome's great granny's, but her Nanna makes a mean version.  They are a lighter, fluffier and altogether more comforting version of tattie scones.  I grew up eating them with bacon as a lovely Friday night tea - thought that they might make usable fist food, and a good vehicle for other flavourings, and the Nome shoved them into her mouth as fast as her little paws could go.

Potatoes - fluffy mashable kind
butter - unsalted, ideally
flour - I use plain, but can't see SR doing any harm

Peel, chop and boil potatoes until cooked enough to mash. Drain, and mash with a knob of butter until most of the lumps are out - don't overmash. (Add extra ingredients at this point - see below for suggestions). Add flour little by little until the dough just stops feeling sticky, but is still light and fluffy.  Place on a floured board, and pat into a circle about 1 1/2 cm thick.  My mum usually cuts this into wedges, but I went all posh and used a scone cutter.  A complete waste of time, as the Nome rearranged them into the abstract shape of her choosing, and then shovelled them in.  Anyway, put a very small amount of butter in a hot frying pan, let it lightly cover the pan, and then fry on both sides until golden brown - it's very quick.

Suggestions for additions - a good Lancashire cheese met with N's approval, and I've also made them with spinach and herbs.  They'd make a good fishcake as well, I reckon, and bits of other veg would also work.

The great thing is that you can collect up the bits that litter the high chair tray, squish them together, and if your child is as laid back as mine, they'll just treat it as a brand new potato cake.  I think it's good "early BLW" food, as it's very handleable, but soft enough to bite and manipulate easily for the novice baby."

...continuing the pulse or bust theme of the recipes section, we now have the hummus burger. I think they sound great, actually.

"I know the list of ingredients is a bit long
but it's honestly dead easy to make. It's fine to add
the fresh chilli as long as you take the seeds out, I
promise - the result is tasty rather than spicy. But
you might not want to squeeze extra lemon on the baby's
burgers.
On a personal note, may I add that I live in South
China where the lychee season is in full swing.
Apparently Annabel Karmel's books haven't been
translated into Cantonese yet. It's a tragedy waiting
to happen.

200g hummus
1 cup soft fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp tahini
half tsp ground cumin
3 spring onions, chopped
1 small red chilli, deseeded, very finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaf
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice (plus wedges to squeeze
over cooked burger)
2 x 400g cans chickpeas
1 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp dry breadcrumbs
1 cup greek yogurt
2 tbsp virgin olive oil
1 tbsp chopped coriander

Put hummus, fresh breadcrumbs, tahini, cumin, chilli,
garlic, coriander, juice, 1 can of chickpeas in a food processor and whizz till it forms a thick paste. Scrape into a bowl, and stir in the chickpeas. Shape into 8 burgers (you may need more breadcrumbs to get the right texture). Mix dry crumbs with sesame seeds, roll burgers in the mixture, and fry in olive oil on both sides till nice and toasty looking. Stir the yogurt, virgin olive oil and coriander together and serve the burgers with the yogurt sauce, lemon wedges and toasted pitta bread."


      ____________________________________________

In fairness, the person who sent me this email does seem to recognise how bizarre this is but she does a lot of entertaining so therefore has a need for a canape maker, unlike most inhabitants of the known world. But wait, BLW fans! What could be yet another £20 wasted at Lakeland Limited is suddenly a must-have...

Whomovedmychocolate says:

"I just bought a Lakeland canape maker - it's like a sandwich toaster but it makes little walnut shaped pastry shells (yeah I know, posh or what!?)

But I discovered you can put small lumps of bread dough in it and make little round bread shells which you can fill with cream cheese and salmon etc for babies) and they are just the perfect size for grabbing.

They are also pretty cool for transporting because you can make up the shells using two of them, put them in a pot and take them with you (although you get the same amount of mess out as home - but hey, hopefully it's on someone else's floor so you don't have to clear up).

It's one of these."

And it can make 120 in one hour... lolol...

Good to see that the aunties of BLW babies are on the case...




"This is all the way from my sister in New Zealand - with a few UK/BLW tweaks.

Red Lentil & Carrot Cakes

1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp mild curry powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
2 tbs red lentils
3/4 cup chicken stock (but I generally use water or that reduced-salt stuff)
1 medium carrot, grated
150g kumura (NZ veggie) or sweet potato or squash
1/4 -1/2 cup grated cheese.

Fry onion & spice in the fat of your choice. (I do bung in some garlic as well.)
Add lentils & stock. Add carrot and the starchy veg.
Cover and simmer for 15-20 mins
Stir in the cheese.

This is the original recipe which makes a loose-ish mash for spoon-feeders or older toddlers who like to show off cutlery skills.

To tweak to BLW stylee:
I usually add more lentils, a touch more of the starchy veg and a bit more water. I cook covered for about 10 mins and then uncovered for the rest of the time until the mixture is dry before stirring in the cheese. When cool, this will make a mash of a stiff enough consistency to be picked up by hand. It can also be combined with breadcrumbs to stiffen the mixture further and then made into cakes in the usual fashion.

Either way it freezes well.

As suggested elsewhere on this site, this can be combined with spinach & cream cheese for a sandwich spread.

Small is liking this a lot at the moment.

Regards

Lin"

Poor Lin has discovered that the next-door flat will be undergoing extensive renovations this summer and therefore anticipates eating in the park A Lot so she has suggested that we all stick our sandwich ideas into one post... She's a bit giddy, I think, at the idea of having her Very Own Poll so I'll cut and paste her email below as there are supplementary questions involved.

We do enjoy a bit of tuna mayo in this house, and I find that if you butter both sides in a debauched manner then things such as ham or cheese stay together. She also likes pate, but I've only started giving it to her recently, and if we're having an impromptu picnic I'm not above asking the man in the deli for a selection of bits of ham, salami, and getting him to slice some cheese for us to have on rolls. Oh, the bliss of having a weaned child over one whose salt intake you don't have to bother about quite so much. Also I personally enjoy a mixture of hummus, grated carrot and sultanas in a sandwich but Babybear has been off hummus for some time now so I don't get it very often.

And I know this is a bit fiddly and faffy and therefore against the grain but I very often find myself running a rolling pin over Babybear's sandwiches and sometimes even cutting off the crusts because she can be a bit of a pain in her determination to disassemble them. I've not yet cut shapes out with cookie cutters, for me that's a Bridge Too Far but go for it if you reckon it'll work for you.

Anyway, here's Lin's starter for ten. Thanks for any and all contributions.

Aaaaah, Quorn. That's on my list of 'things we should eat more of.' Or is that tofu? I get so confused...

"Hi there Aitch,

I thought it was about time we had a Quorn recipe on the blog so here is a recipe for veggie meatballs.  It isn’t really mine, I have amended it from Jenny Maizels book but the Pumpkin loves these served with a tomato sauce and pasta so I thought I would share it.  Be warned though, it can be quite messy.

 

Veggie Meatballs (but you could use mince and have normal meatballs). Makes about 16

 

1 small red onion chopped

1clove garlic, chopped

200g veggie mince (I use Quorn)

1tsp dried mixed herbs

1tsp of smoked paprika

2-3 tbsp of passata/tinned toms (I usally use passata but I don’t think it matters much)

11/2 slices of bread made into breadcrumbs

1 beaten egg

 

Heat some olive oil and fry onion and garlic until soft

Add mince with herbs and tomatoes, cook for about 5 mins (until it is cooked through if you are using meat rather than veggie stuff)

Stir in breadcrumbs, leave to cool and then stir in the egg.

Shape into walnut size balls (you can freeze any you don’t want immediately at this point)

Place on a greased baking sheet for about 20 mins (200/400/gas mark 6)"