Recently we spent a week on holiday in Cornwall as a family. We stayed in a lovely stone cottage between St Ives and Lands End. We had a great week of hilly cycling as well as enjoying the beautiful beaches and stunning coastline.
One of the things we also enjoy whilst on holiday is going out to a restaurant for a meal. Now that our son is getting a little bit older it is nice for him to be able to enjoy the food on the menu too. He has always been a good eater ever since he started solids at 6 months. I have tried to cook all his meals from scratch and introduce him to as wide variety of foods as possible. Now at nearly 3 he has a very diverse palette. He loves fruit of any kind, will eat most vegetables and is very keen on fish, especially salmon. He really isn't fussy at all which as a mum is a real blessing. It also makes it a lot easier when we go out for a meal as it means he is happy to eat what we are having. Whilst on holiday we found a local pub and all had a delicious piece of smoked haddock with pesto mash, spinach and a poached egg. Our son really enjoyed it and they were happy to give us a child size portion at half the price. They had offered us the children's menu but it was the usual chicken nuggets and chips, sausages and chips and pasta. Why do a lot of pubs and restaurants assume that all children want to eat only fast foods? At what age do they progress to the adult menu and more varied tastes? Do they simply then move onto the burger and chips from the adult menu? I really want to encourage our son to try a variety of foods as he grows up and to be keen to try different tastes and flavours. I also really want restaurants to not take the easy choice and just serve burger and chips. If you have good food on the menu why not offer it to children? I was impressed with the other two places we chose to eat later in the week. The Cornish Deli in St Ives said that children could have a smaller portion of most of the foods on the main menu. We chose a haddock and leek chowder (a fish soup) for our son which came with freshly made bread. They said on their menu that they believed that 'little people should eat as well as big people'. I agree. On our final night we went to the Cornish Range in Mousehole. We have been there a couple of times before and the food is excellent and very refined. I really love the fact that they have a childrens menu that is just as good as the adults. It had salmon fillet, lemon sole goujons, risotto and even steak on offer. They all came with new potatoes and vegetables. I was happy for my son to choose any of those and he went for the risotto (which does happen to be his favourite!). He loved it so here are a couple of the great recipes he enjoyed that are suitable for both children and adults.
Haddock Chowder
3 Adult servings (or 2 adults and 2 children).
1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
1 large leek trimmed and finely sliced
1 medium potato cut into small cubes
400ml of whole milk
350g of smoked haddock, skin removed and cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon of finely chopped chives
Freshly ground pepper
Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat
Add the leek and sweat for 5-10 minutes until soft
Add the potato and milk
Bring to the boil then cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the potato is tender (stir regularly)
Add the fish and cook gently for a furthur 3-4 minutes until the fish is cooked
Stir in the chives and add pepper to taste
Parmesan and Pea risotto
Serves 3 adults or 2 adults and 2 children
1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove peeled and crushed
225g of risotto rice
750ml of vegetable stock
30g parmesan cheese
Knob of butter
125g of frozen peas defrosted
Heat the oil in a medium pan
Add the onion and sweat for 5-10 minutes until softened but not golden
Add the garlic and rice and cook for another minute
Start adding the stock a ladle at a time. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer stirring regularly
Keep the rest of the stock in a small saucepan on the hob so it stays on the boil
Continue adding the stock until the rice is cooked (tender but with a slight bite in the middle)
Stir in the peas and cook for a few more minutes
Stir in the knob of butter and parmesan
Season with black pepper
Another good risotto is mushroom, pea and parmesan. After sweating the onion add 15g of dried porcini mushrooms that have been soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, along with 100g of fresh mushroomn (such as chestnut or button). Add the liquid from the soaked mushrooms after adding the rice.
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