6:30am Wednesday 1st July 2009
Fay Ripley had always taken a rigid approach to planning her daughter Parker’s meals. “I wanted to be the perfect mother and would spend the day whizzing organic fresh food. I was exhausted by the time I got round to cooking for me and my husband,” she says. But seeing Italian children enjoying a meal with their grandparents, giggling and eating ‘grown-up food’, Fay realised she had been doing things all wrong. “I got home and started to put together food that everyone wanted to eat,” she says. But she soon discovered a gap in the market for recipes that would work for adults and kids. The more I cooked the same for everyone, the more it made sense to me. Try some of Fay’s recipes for yourself...
TOSSED LAMB WITH SWEET POTATO
This tasty dish is one of Fay's favourites and good enough to serve as a lunch or light supper for friends. - Serves 4
• 500g sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped to bite size
• Olive oil
• 100g green beans
• 500g lamb fillets
• Fresh pesto (buy it, don’t make it)
• Handful of baby plum or cherry tomatoes, halved
• Bag of baby spinach and rocket
• Balsamic vinegar
• 3 finely chopped spring onions
• 75g pine kernels, toasted (roasted or dry-fried – but watch out, they suddenly go brown!)
Pre-heat the oven to 200C (fan)/220C/gas mark 7. Drizzle sweet potato with a little olive oil and roast for about 30 minutes. Cook the green beans in boiling water for three minutes, drain and cool
under running cold water. Meanwhile, fry or griddle lamb fillets to taste (15 minutes or so, turning regularly). Wrap in foil and rest, then slice and toss in the pesto.
Babies: Whizz the lamb, potato and beans together, with a little stock or boiled water if necessary.
Kids: Serve the tomatoes, beans, sweet potato and lamb tossed together with pine nuts.
Adults: On a platter, season and dress the leaves with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then scatter with the other ingredients.
NO CRUST SALMON PIZZA
Get the kids to eat more fish – tell them they're having pizza tonight!
Serves 6
• 350-400g Italian tomato sauce (homemade or from a jar)
• 200g Portobello mushrooms
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 6 salmon fillets, boned
• 1tbsp chives, chopped
• Handful of chopped basil
• 1 large ball of buffalo mozzarella
• Handful of pitted olives, any colour
Roughly slice the mushrooms and fry in the olive oil until soft. Pre-heat the oven to 200C (fan)/220C/gas mark 7. Slice the salmon fillets horizontally and lay out on a pizza stone or a large
roasting tray lined with baking paper. Overlap the halved fillets to create a circle for your salmon pizza base. Scatter the mushrooms over the base and cover with the tomato sauce.
Sprinkle with the chopped herbs. Break up the mozzarella and scatter it all over.
Throw on a few olives and bake for 20 minutes.
Use the paper to slide the pizza on to a big wooden board. Serve immediately with a green salad and garlic bread.
Babies: Whizz or just break up with a fork (no olives).
QUICK CHOCOLATE TORTE
Smooth, chocolatey, quick, easy and delicious. Fay says anyone can make this great pudding.
If you need to ‘dress it up a bit’ before serving, a dusting of cocoa or icing sugar should do the trick.
Serves 8
• 200g butter, cubed
• 200g dark chocolate, broken up
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 200g caster sugar
• Cocoa powder for dusting
• A 24cm loose-bottomed cake tin
Heat the oven to 180C (fan)/200C/gas mark 6. Grease the sides of the tin and line the base with baking parchment.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a glass or metal bowl over gently bubbling water. Leave to cool.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar together for a couple of minutes until smooth, then add to the chocolate mix. Combine.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and place half into the chocolate/egg mix.
Fold gently till combined, then do the same with the remaining egg whites. Pour into the tin and bake in the middle of the oven on a baking tray for 45 minutes or until the centre of the cake feels just set.
Leave it to cool. (It will sink down, but don’t panic.) When cool, run a knife around the sides and turn out.
Before serving, dust with cocoa. Great with berries and thick whipped cream. It keeps well in an airtight container for up to three days.
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