Eat Up: Food for Children of All Ages

Eat Up: Food for Children of All Ages
Mark Hix

Nursery food recipes that adults can enjoy too. First serious book on ‘comfort food’ that explores ways to get kids to enjoy a diverse, nutritious diet and why we all love those nursery favourites.Mark Hix, much praised executive chef of The Ivy, Le Caprice and J Sheeky, brings all his experience to help parents create that rare phenomenon – the child who will happily eat food that is not camouflaged by a crispy coating. He believes children should be introduced to a variety of foods and natural flavours at an early age, getting away from the culture of separate meals for children as soon as possible.‘Eat Up’ is his solution: a range of simple and delicious nursery food recipes that can be easily adapted to make dishes adults can enjoy too.Hix discusses his experiences with his own children and how he encourages them to explore food. He has also invited a few other chefs to reveal innovative ways to feed kids, such as the chef who has invented a tomatoless tomato ketchup to overcome his daughter’s allergy. Hix also delves into the reasons why adults are obsessed with comfort food.Mouthwatering recipes, practical tips, and beautiful photographs of children having fun with food make ‘Eat Up’ a must for anyone fed up with fish fingers.

Eat Up

Food for children of all ages

Mark Hix

with Suzi Godson

Copyright (#ulink_90d59d70-6add-509c-85eb-f7da13931133)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain in 2000 by Fourth Estate

Copyright © Mark Hix & Suzi Godson 2000

Mark Hix & Suzi Godson assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007146772

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007405169

Version 2016-09-09

Dedication (#ulink_0cbc5bd5-5afa-5e34-84f7-adf17f780c59)

For Ellie, Lydia, Scarlet, Ruby and Amber

Contents

Cover (#u2f7e4a46-b913-5b41-a547-7d1040542989)

Title Page (#u18f85b9a-3f70-5023-93aa-16b105f659c2)

Copyright (#ue1642194-9bd3-5a9b-9d2d-6dc382a96bf2)

Dedication (#ub1e642be-c044-52a1-b2df-8289b76963c0)

Weights, Measures and Servings (#u55f0dc24-77ff-51de-bfeb-f69f0fe9897c)

To begin with… (#u251b0b93-5194-5240-bbf9-f84acb2c7528)

Shopping (#ue729fe72-13af-55af-9f7b-22a3025efe28)

Cooking (#ueb8a0ba0-b298-56b5-8161-75e6573e422c)

Feeding Babies and Toddlers (#u82c365cf-dd0d-5fa1-80d2-78e8780d13bc)

Soups and Stocks (#litres_trial_promo)

Vegetables and Salads (#litres_trial_promo)

Eggs, Pasta and Rice (#litres_trial_promo)

Meat and Fish (#litres_trial_promo)

Puddings (#litres_trial_promo)

Picnics, Snacks and Parties (#litres_trial_promo)

Drinks and Lollies (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Weights, Measures and Servings (#ulink_b4aa2012-c483-5d45-93a8-ba9f08da1c70)

To begin with… (#ulink_cc47e025-f5ec-5394-a774-65120efe83a3)

When our twin girls, Ellie and Lydia, were born, like many fathers I didn’t feel I could get very involved in feeding them. Initially, they were breastfed but this was exhausting for my wife, Suzie, so we were both relieved when they started drinking formula milk because it meant we could share the almost constant feeding. A diet consisting entirely of formula seemed an awful way for babies to inaugurate their tastebuds but mine drank pints of the stuff and the fridge was crammed with 8oz bottles for months. I couldn’t wait to get them on to proper food.

When they finally moved on to ‘solids’, I sampled a few jars of baby food out of curiosity. Although they’re supposed to be completely natural I didn’t think they tasted anything like their original ingredients. As a chef, I had ambitions for Ellie’s and Lydia’s little palates even then, and I would experiment with purées of freshly cooked vegetables at the weekends and freeze them for Suzie to use during the week. My schedule was so hectic that getting to feed Ellie and Lydia, or even eating together as a family, was a rare treat, so I concentrated on making their food a bit special. We wanted to get them used to flavour and variety but, even more importantly, by making their food at home we knew exactly what was in it. Commercially processed food can be a valuable standby but it is not nearly as tasty as the fresh, home-cooked alternative.

In a professional kitchen, chefs create dishes by mixing complementary flavours, whether it’s carrot and cardamom, beetroot and horseradish or something as classic as peas and mint. With Ellie and Lydia we used potato and parsnip as a base to introduce vegetables such as pumpkin, carrots, leeks and other root vegetables. As they got older, we added small quantities of spices such as cumin and fresh ginger. We put everything we could in the blender and sometimes the purées were so tasty that Suzie and I would eat a chunkier version as an accompaniment to meat or fish.

It became apparent early on that Ellie and Lydia preferred the taste of banana and sweet vegetables such as parsnip and butternut squash to more savoury flavours such as avocado and potato. What I found interesting about the purée stage was the fact that, because all the food has the same smooth consistency, likes and dislikes are based entirely on taste, not appearance, texture or presentation. It was much easier feeding Ellie and Lydia at this stage. Their senses of smell and taste were pure and they were happy to explore new flavours in a way that they would later become much more reluctant to do. After the first few months texture and presentation become increasingly important.

Although presentation is not important to a small baby, variety is. If babies are given the same pale purée at every meal, the chances are that when they are eventually offered carrot or avocado they will be less willing to try it. Habits are formed very early, so offering different colours and flavours at the beginning helps keep lots of options open. Feeding children is very different from feeding adults. Feeding a small baby is about anticipating and satisfying a physical need, whereas the adults that I feed in restaurants are not necessarily hungry at all. Adults appreciate that food is a pleasure and that taste is a sensory experience. Whether they are hungry or not, having dinner at the Ivy is an enjoyable thing to do. With Ellie and Lydia, however, I learned the hard way that, unless they were hungry, the effort of producing a meal for them was wasted, no matter how good the food was. Timing is crucial in a restaurant but it is even more important with a small baby.

From about seven months, the girls began to learn how to feed themselves, and mealtimes became very messy. We were never sure how much food they actually swallowed because most of it seemed to end up on the floor, but they were healthy and growing so we didn’t worry. Things became more interesting the older they got. By the time they were tucking into finger foods, like pieces of bread and fruit, and enjoying soft-textured dishes such as risotto, mashed vegetables, fish pie and shepherd’s pie, there was very little difference between what they liked and what we liked. I’ve always been quite partial to nursery food, so cooking separate meals for them seemed unnecessary. I would cook a simple butternut squash risotto for the girls, and finish it off with butter, salt and pepper for Suzie and myself. It seemed like common sense to cook for the whole family at once rather than cater for two separate meals – I had to cook a ‘second sitting’ at the restaurant and I certainly didn’t intend to start doing it at home as well.

However, as Ellie and Lydia became more independent, feeding them became less straightforward. By the time they were toddlers they had worked out that mealtimes were an opportunity to assert themselves. In retrospect I suppose Suzie and I made all the obvious mistakes. We really wanted them to eat and they soon cottoned on to the fact that if they refused to eat something they would eventually be offered an alternative. Because there were two of them, despite our best intentions their combined demands would send us running to the fridge to try and find something more acceptable, when in fact if they had been hungry they would probably have eaten the first dish anyway. Snacking was part of the problem. Toddlers use up a lot of energy but if they are given ‘something to keep them going’ often enough they won’t be able to eat a proper meal. So we tried to exert a bit of ‘snack control’ to ensure the twins were hungry at mealtimes. If they then rejected something it was likely to be because they genuinely disliked it rather than because they were being fussy or just weren’t hungry.