Category Archives: Recipes for the Whole Family

Rustic Split Pea and Chicken Stew in a Pressure Cooker

Posted on April 21, 2013 | 1 comment

We have really been enjoying our pressure cooker. I think it really shines in a dish like this Split Pea and Chicken Stew. (I make this recipe multiple times a month with either lentils or peas.) In twenty minutes I have a dish that tastes like it cooked all day. I also love that I can sear in the same pot, unlike in my Tagine or slow cooker, making this an easy, one pot meal that the whole family enjoys. Combining the lentils or peas with a small amount of chicken really stretches the protein, making it very economical. And the small amount of pancetta is optional but adds a secret richness to the peas. The result: well, the next morning, Little Bird asked for “soup” for breakfast.

 Rustic Split Pea and Chicken Stew

Rustic Split Pea and Chicken Stew Recipe

  • 1 Tablespoon of olive oil
  • 1 oz of diced pancetta (optional)
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 sweet onion, diced
  • 2 celery, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 2 oz mushrooms, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 cup of dried split green peas (or lentils)
  • 3-4 cups of chicken broth or water (use the larger amount if you want it to be more like soup)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2-3 sprigs of thyme
  • 1/2 tablespoon of a dried spice and herb blend
  • balsamic vinegar, for serving

In a pressure cooker, over medium heat, sauté the onions and pancetta (if using) followed by the carrots, celery and mushrooms, until soft, adding the garlic and any spices for the last minute. Add a splash of broth to deglaze, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan and mixing it into the broth. Add the rest of the broth, the split peas or lentils, chicken, and any herbs and spices. Give a quick stir and then cover and cook in the pressure cooker, according to the manufacturer’s instructions for 10 minutes at pressure. (At this point mine just starts to smell like split peas.) Allow the steam to release naturally (or quick release if you are inpatient like me.) Taste to check the seasoning, and adjust if needed. Serve with a drizzle of the balsamic vinegar.

This serves 4-6. (Or two hungry adults and one toddler, twice.)

Split Pea and Chicken in a Pressure Cooker

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Cooking with Very Small Children: Baby Bird’s Applesauce

Posted on April 14, 2013 | 3 comments

No, the title does not refer to cooking up children for dinner. I’ll try some adventurous food, but I’m no cannibal. I’m talking about how wonderful it is to have children, even infants, helping in the kitchen. You’ve heard of farm to table, but how about tree to highchair? In one of my proudest parenting moments, my 11-month-old helped pick apples from a tree and made them into applesauce.

Baby Bird sorts her apples

We like to involve her in cooking, showing her the whole foods and every step of the process. It makes her more excited to eat the food. And we love to show her plants growing, so that she knows tomatoes come from a plant, carrots from the ground, as well as eggs from chickens. It was a wonderful experience to take her to a local orchard last fall for apple picking. Babies at this age love putting things in bowls and bags (and taking them out again.)

Baby Bird loves to help cook

When letting babies and toddlers help in the kitchen there are plenty of chores that do not involve heat or sharp knives. Since moving things from one container to another is a fun game at this stage, have little one (from 9 months on) move the apple pieces from the cutting board or a bowl into a (room temperature) pot. The pieces were too large for swallowing, in case she wanted to chew on or taste one. Mine also liked to move scraps and peel into the compost container. After 12-15 months, toddlers love to stir things, too. At 18 months, Little Bird loves to help scramble her eggs. We put a heavy bowl on the kitchen floor, let her watch us crack the eggs and she “stir, stir, stirs”!

Homemade applesauce

Baby Bird’s First Applesauce Recipe

  • apples, peeled, cored and cut in chunks
  • a few splashes of apple juice or water
  • 1/2 – 1 teaspoon grains of paradise
  • (optional) 1/4 teaspoon salt

Place the apples in a medium sized pot. Add enough juice or water to cover up the apples 1/3 to 1/2 the way up. No sugar is needed, as apples are naturally sweet, but if you prefer the sauce to be sweeter, choose apple juice over water. Add  the grains of paradise and salt to taste. Bring the apples up to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes until they are soft and start to fall apart. Mash with a fork or the back of a spoon for a slightly chunky sauce.

Notes:

Grains of Paradise are a pepper-like spice. They have less bite than black pepper and are absolutely wonderful with apples (as well as on eggs, in guacamole, and almost anywhere you would use pepper.) After trying them, I no longer like cinnamon in my apple pie or applesauce, but feel free to substitute. We keep ours in an extra pepper mill and grind as needed.

Baby Bird enjoyed her first adventure apple picking, apple bagging, sorting, eating and cooking!


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Posted in Food, Healthy Recipes, Homemade Baby Food, Parenting, Recipes for the Whole Family

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Cauliflower Soup

Posted on March 30, 2013 | 3 comments

Cauliflower Soup on BabyBirdsFarm

My family and I spent a sunny Sunday morning last week at the farmer’s market. Among other yums, both my husband and I were drawn to an unusual looking cauliflower at the Suzie’s Farm stand.  It was a cheddar-orange colored variety called, well “cheddar.” I thought it was an heirloom, but upon research at home, it is actually a hybrid, but non-gmo seeds are available here. The color turned even darker when I cooked it and cheddar cauliflower naturally has 25 times the beta carotene of regular cauliflower, making it 2nd only to carrots. It made a lovely, simple soup!

Cheddar Cauliflower

Cauliflower Soup Recipe

  • 1 Tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 onion diced
  • salt and pepper
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed or diced
  • 1 large or 2 small heads of cauliflower, roughly chopped
  • 3-4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
  • 1 cup of milk (optional)

In a medium-large soup pot, heat oil on medium heat. Sauté the onions, seasoned with salt and pepper, until soft. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute, add the cauliflower and broth. Bring up to a low boil and cook for about 15 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft. Let cool slightly, then puree with an immersion blender, or transfer to a blender. Add the milk, if using, and return to heat until warm.

Very baby friendly. Also great served cool or room temperature! I kept the seasoning simple and garnished with a little truffle salt.

Cauliflower Soup on BabyBirdsFarm

 

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Posted in Food, Healthy Recipes, Recipes for the Whole Family, Recipes from the Garden, Seasonal Recipes, Urban Agriculture, Urban Homesteading

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Baby’s First Seder Plate

Posted on March 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

Last year at Passover our Baby Bird was just starting to eat solids. She loved eating with us and participating in meals. So I wanted to be sure to include her in our seder. She pretty much only ate purées at the time, except for some naturally creamy foods, like avocado and banana, and had just started egg yolks. Here is what I came up with for her:

Ideas for Baby's First Seder on BabyBirdsFarm

  • Lamb Shank → Stuffed Lambie AND Yam (Yam is also an option for Vegetarian adults.)
  • Parsley → Avocado (Still represents the green freshness of spring)
  • Egg → Hardboiled Egg (But for her I chose one of the small eggs laid by our Ameraucana instead of a larger egg)
  • Charoset → Applesauce (Could also do an applesauce and date puree)
  • Horseradish → A puree using beets, as a beet-colored horseradish is fairly common)
  • Matzo → Rice cereal (As I recall it was mixed into the purée)

For comparison, here was the adult seder plate:

seder2

The mango you ask? Well, I didn’t have any oranges.

Oranges?? Why would there be an orange on a seder plate?

Being a good feminist I always put an orange on my seder plate! The urban legend goes that an old, conservative rabbi once said that “a woman belongs on the bimah [the podium from where the rabbi leads the congregation] like an orange belongs on a seder plate.” Another meaning is that by eating an orange and spitting out the seeds, all of the participants are rejecting homophobia.

I also make sure to have my prettiest crystal filled with a glass of water for Miriam (Moses’ brother who followed him down the river to protect him).

Anyway, these are just my ideas and opinions. I believe that a seder should be a ritualized tradition, but that it is an organic and changeable one. We find our own meanings, as we create and define them for our families.

And just for fun, here is a link to the full episode of the Rugrats Passover.

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Posted in Homemade Baby Food, How To, Our Family, Recipes for the Whole Family

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Mower’s Matzo Ball Soup

Posted on March 24, 2013 | 5 comments

This is my great-grandmother’s recipe for Matzo Ball Soup. It was transcribed at one point by my mother for a synagogue cook book. I still use the tattered book, lined with my notes over the years in pencil. I have updated it minimally by using fresh herbs, instead of dried (which I imagine is probably closer to how my great-grandmother, Mower, made it.) Mower likely started from whole matzo rather than matzo meal, but I like to believe she would approve of the modern convenience. They are light, fluffy and flavorful, and simply the best. I can rarely eat a restaurant matzo ball as they just can’t compare.

My Great-Grandmother's Matzo Ball Soup Recipe

Passover is by far my favorite Jewish holiday. It is all about a big dinner party! Although I am not particularly observant, I love to celebrate Passover by hosting a seder. Apart from our favorite family recipes (it’s like a 2nd Thanksgiving!) I do love the message and the story of freedom.

Passover starts this year (in North America) on the evening of Monday, March 25th. But I wanted to share this recipe ahead of time. The “secret ingredient” to Mower’s Matzo Balls is schmaltz, or chicken fat, in which onions are slowly caramelized. As there is a lot of cooking for Passover, I like to make the chicken broth and schmaltz the weekend before. There are at least two methods of preparing schmaltz. You can render the chicken fat by cooking down the fat and skin. Here is a how-to post with step by step pictures. I find it simpler, however, to just make a homemade broth and then skim off the fat layer that congeals at the top when cooled.

Skimming the fat for a quick schmaltz

Some tips and tricks for getting the best matzo balls:

  1. Don’t make them too big. The balls will nearly double when cooked, so start off with a small walnut-sized ball.
  2. Really let the onions slow cook and caramelize in the chicken fat and don’t skrimp on the schmaltz.
  3. A light touch when forming the matzo balls is key. Don’t over handle them.
  4. The broth and schmaltz can be made a week ahead of time. The onions can be cooked the day before and stored in the fridge. But don’t let the batter sit more than 1 to 3 hours or it will get too dense.
  5. And don’t cook the matzo balls too far ahead of time or let them sit in soup. Just before the seder, cook them the first 10 minutes. They can wait for the length of a seder, then just before serving, cook the final 10 minutes in broth.

Making Matzo Balls on BabyBirdsFarm

Mower’s Matzo Ball Soup Recipe

Serves 6 (Easily doubles)
For the matzo balls:

  • 2 Tablespoons chicken fat
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 heaping cup of matzo meal
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • handful of chopped fresh parsley and thyme
  • 1 Tablespoon of chicken broth

For the finished soup:

  • 2 quarts prepared chicken broth (recipe follows)
  • 1 carrot, very thinly sliced, or shaved with a vegetable peeler
  • reserved, shredded meat of 1/2 chicken

On medium low heat, sauté the onions in fat in a covered pan until golden and very soft. Cool onions. (Can be stored in refrigerator 1 day in advance.) Beat together the eggs until light and fluffy. Add the matzo meal, seasoning, herbs and tablespoon of broth. Cover and refrigerate 1 to 3 hours. Roll into approximately 16 to 18 balls about the size of small walnuts (use a teaspoon to scoop up batter and dust hands with extra matzo meal to combat stickiness.) Drop balls into a pot of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Then transfer to hot broth with the carrots for another 10 minutes before serving. Add the chicken just at the end to reheat.

My Family’s Chicken Soup

  • 1 whole chicken, in pieces
  • 1-2 onions (leaving the skin on will add a dark color)
  • 3 stalks celery
  • 2-3 carrots
  • 1-2 parsnips
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic
  • 4-5 peppercorns
  • salt, to taste
  • 1 bay leaf
  • filtered water or water plus prepared chicken stock

Place washed chicken in a large pot and cover with water. (You can cheat and  intensify the flavor by using a little prepared chicken stock or broth.) Bring to a fast boil and skim off any scum that rises to the top. Rough chop the onion, celery, carrots, and parsnip and add to the soup with garlic, pepper, salt and bay leaf. (If you are using a prepared stock, consider skipping added salt.) Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked. Remove just the chicken. Remove the meat from the bones and set aside. This helps prevent over-cooked meat. Put the bones, fat and bits back into the pot and continue simmering for 2-3 hours. Keep the water level just covering ingredients. Strain the soup through a sieve, discarding all solids and chill to congeal fat on top. Store in the fridge up to one week or freeze.  Jewish Penicillin!!


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Posted in Food, Recipes for the Whole Family, Seasonal Recipes, Step by Step with Pictures

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