cooking with children

[bluesky]

Does anyone have any good recipes that have worked out well and have been fun to do with their children? Usually children tend to join in, or we always make the same things ie; fairy cakes, cakes rock buns etc. again and again.

What has got your children excited about learning to cook, my 4 year old does a bit of mixing and thinks he's Jamie Oliver already! Or he sticks an olive on top of something, and thats 'garnishing' covered!

I have memories of my little sister always making us cheese straws when I was younger, and I would make anything that involved dessicated coconut, now I just go straight for the chocolate recipes!

I would just be interested as now ds is nearly nine, I'd like to do a bit more. We made a cheesecake recently, as I thought I would go for what was his favourite food at the mo is, of course he hates cheese, so I pretend cheese has nothing to do with it!

Any thoughts appreciated, thanks!

Scones. Easy for even the smallest person to help with.

2 cups of flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
Sift thest together then rub in:
50g of butter
Mix to a sticky dough with approx:
2/3 cup of milk (this can change depending on the weather)

Roll or pat out to a thick slab and cut into shapes. Bake at 220 degrees for 10 minutes.

This basic mix can be jazzed up with:
Rasins
Dried fruit
Marmelade
Cheese (though maybe not for your son)

Have you tried making bread or yeast doughs? Especially good for wet winter days as it takes a long time.

Chocolate fudge brownies
Melt 80g milk chocolate and 80g dark chocolate (though I've done this with either wholly dark or milk) and 125g of butter in a bowl over simmering water.
When it's melted take the bowl off the water and mix in:
2 lightly beaten eggs
2 tablespoons of honey
1/2 cup of soft browm sugar (packed hard)
1 cup of flour.
Pour into a greased, lined tin and bake at 180 degrees for half an hour. Cool in the tin and cut into squares. It should be dense and fudgy.
You could also add:
1/2 cup of chopped apricots
1/2 cup of chopped nuts (hazelnuts work well)
chocolate chips
or coconut

thanks slug, I like the brownie idea. Bread is definitely a good idea, as its a bit of a cross between an experiment and a recipe, good for boys!

Muffins are good. DS1 & 2 (5 and 3) made them. All I did was measure the ingredients and hand them over at the right moment.

do your children like curry? If so, let me know and I'll post our lamb curry recipe (very mild). My kids love helping me make it and they are only 2 and 3 so I'm sure yours would be a much bigger help!

we did the jamie oliver toad in the hole the other day, dd1 helping with the batter mixing & shoving in the sausages and sticks of rosemary. yum

thanks for the two meal/savoury ideas, I would be interested in the lamb curry as they do like lamb.

Good supper ideas that they can be involved with.

My dream is that when my boys leave home they know how to cook things for their future wives! my husband knows NOTHING (OK cheese on pitta garnished with ketchup is his 'special' ). When we go to friends houses for a meal and the men are cooking, I find it such a novelty and am overcome with jealousy!

yes I know what you mean bluesky. I'm married to someone who can't cook and he was even boasting to me the other day how he ate nothing but burgers throughout his university days (around 20 years ago!). His eczema was APPALLING when we started going out and he was on a very powerful steroid cream. Around a month of eating 'normal' home-cooked food, me forcing fruit and veg down him and he hardly had ezcema at all. 5 years later and he hasn't been to doc once for it. It actually makes me cross that he suffered so long without even thinking about his diet. But I guess that's men for you!

Lamb curry (sorry, completely non-scientific measurements because I've never noticed how much has gone in. I shop from Sainsburys so that's the packet size I'm talking about!)

-1 pack of casserole lamb
-2 packs of extra fine trimmed beans (the long thin green ones)
-1 can of flageolet beans
-1 white cabbage
-1 big pot (think its 500ml) of creme fraiche (low fat or natural yoghurt if weight watching)
-Around 500ml of lamb stock (either the lamb oxo cube or just plain runny gravy)
-Rosemary
-Curry powder

Get big casserole pot and turn oven on to 180C. Put casserole pot on hob and fry lamb in a tiny bit of oil till lamb is brown on the outside. Put in 2 tablespoons of mild curry powder and a large sprig of rosemary (or just sprinkle dried rosemary all over). Pour over creme fraiche and stir. Put in stock and stir. Put in green beans, chopped up cabbage. Drain flageolet beans and wash in water. Put those in the pot. Put in oven for around 2 hours (you can do on a lower temp and make it last 3-4 hours if you need to). Serve with rice.

You can put original spices in instead of curry powder - gram masala and coriander are very good in that but I never have enough time to measure out properly or taste it to get it right. Curry powder is quick alternative!

Meatballs
Pack of mince, slice of stale bread whizzed in processor to make breadcrumbs, parsley, egg, splash of milk, salt and pepper, a chopped fried onion if you can be bothered.
Mix thoroughly with hands, form into walnut sized balls, toss in flour and fry. Then simmer in a tomato based sauce.

have uou a branch of waitrose food and home near yo?

ours has a studio where you can book your kids in ( varitey of ranges of ages) and they make fabbo food all for £4

altho not sure about hte cod in a bag recipe!

You really mustn't cook with them, social services would be cross and there are plenty of meat substitutes available on the market these days

(where's that ' I couldn't help it , sorry emoticon'

You want a chemistry experiment? How's this for the reaction between acids and alkali.

Hokey Pokey
5 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of golden syrup

Put these in a saucepan and heat gently until dissolved. Bring to boil (sugar boil, a hard foamy rolling boil) and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally if necessary to avoid sticking.
Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda
Stir until it froths up, pour immediatly into a buttered baking tin and leave till cold and hard. Break into pieces.

lol suzy

slug, that sounds fab! Cant wait til he gets home!

Liked the Waitrose info, must look into where our nearest one is that might do it.

I was trying to remember cookery lessons at school last night, and all I can remember making and taking home was coleslaw and flapjacks, perhaps they were the only things I managed that were in one piece to take home!? I wish they still did lots of cooking in schools, we had a lovely Home Ec teacher.

Nigella's scones - sorry don't have the recipe on me, but it's brill if you have the book. Takes just a few minutes to mix it up - lots of nice stirring to do, and I bung raisins in, which is a winner with kids. Then the dough is brilliant for squeezing, rolling, cutting out. My dd is bit young at 2, but I made these recently with a friend's daughter who is 5 and we both had a whale of a time.

Plus they were delicious - piled high with cream, jam and some fresh strawberries or raspberries. Yum.

Slug that is the same as 'cinder toffee' or honeycomb. We made loads over Christmas as presents!!

My 4 yr old likes doing roast chicken.

Pour oil over chicken, massage in a bit, sprinkle with herbs, salt and pepper and lemon juice (juice a real lemon, then throw in the peel. Add some stock or white wine if wanted and roast.

With that she like baby new potatoes roasted, drizzle with oil and bung in oven!!

I just do regular cooking with mine (aged 5 and 3) except if they are 'helping' we do all the mixing etc on the kitchen table. My 5 yr old now uses a sharp knife quite well, she can chop most things, bar raw meat or things we want in thin slices.

They love pancakes too

Sorry ideas keep coming!!

My DS likes making biscuits so he can cut them into loads of different shapes. H elaos likes rolling things out. Drives me mad in the kitchen though

He also....

very tired today....zzzzzz