Baby Food: Banana Raisin Oatmeal

One of her breakfast. I use frozen banana purée as the banana I bought was ripe and could no longer be kept. So I purée the banana to be kept frozen. If you have ripe banana, you could just use it and mashed it. It's more ideal for babies who prefers a little texture in their oatmeal. Recipe as follow.

Ingredients

1 banana (mashed)

A small portion of raisins (chopped finely)

1 small cup of oats (blended or whole)

Water or milk 

1. Place the oats, mashed banana, chopped raisins and some water or milk, on low fire cook till it's done or raisins are soft enough. 

Baby Food: Baby First Food - Purées

This is long overdue lol. When Ezra my first born turn 6 months, I was so excited about introducing solid to him. BUT as a first time mom, I'm almost anal most the time about everything and particularly how I want my boy raised, from A-Z, so the subject of feeding solid was not something I fare well. Not really keen on relying on my mom or MIL for advice because they were formula moms, I had this thought implanted in my head that their methods are just so different from me as a breastfeeding mom that I gotta do my own reading and research, which is sorta true for some matters. Not like they're inexperienced. They are, but with a formula fed baby, but when it comes to breastfeeding, the do's and don't's is also something new to them, it's a learning process to them as well. SO I read that the first food that I should introduce rice and breast milk as their first food. I did just that but unfortunately, Ezra gagged and clearly didn't like it. Why would he when I didn't even like the taste. Assuming he wasn't ready, I delayed his solid intake to about 8 months. Till this day I believe Ezra is a picky eater because of me. I was lousy and unadventurous and the food I made was so limited that he didn't enjoy a lot of other yummy food out there. So when I had Cadence and after chatting with many many moms on what they've introduced and done for their little ones, I made sure that I didn't repeat the same mistake I did with Ezra. My experience with Ezra became my learning curve to Cadence. So when Cadence hit the 6 months mark, I went on full speed mode to prepare purées in batches to freeze. A week before 6 months, I actually let her hold slices of pears and apples to suck on just so she can get an idea there's more to breast milk in this world. She was a lot easier to feed and she seem to enjoy her food, almost all of her food that I've made for her. It could be she was very prepared for solid, I don't know but I would like to think I didn't do a good job with Ezra. The first food I introduced to her was apple purée. She gave a very positive response to her first food and I couldn't be more glad. I can safely declare that she loves her food because she would open up her mouth every time a spoon full is offered to her. And by 6 months is also when I started to introduce water to her to ease the intake of fruits purées.

To date, for fruits, I've made apple (red delicious), pear (packham), plum, peach, mango, banana (I use pisang berangan) and avocado. While for vegetables I've made, sweet potatoes (orange & Japanese yellow sweet potato), pumpkin (American & Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin/winter squash), green bean, baby corn, baby carrots and parsnip. For some reason, whatever that's from Japan always taste so much better like the Japanese sweet potato and kabocha. It's always so much sweeter naturally. Not to mention, for grains, instead of rice cereal, I've opted for oats. I bought a packet of roll oats and blended them myself. It was well received by Miss Cadee when the oats was cooked with breastmilk.

Anyways, to prepare myself for the whole process of preparing her solid food, I had a few items on my 'to-buy-list'. I made sure I bought a packet of labels so that every time I prepare her food, I could actually label the purées of what the ingredient is and the date I've prepared it. It is important because as you start to purée the food, the colours of sweet potato, pumpkin and carrots is almost similar that it's best to just put a label on the food storage compared to having to spend the few minutes to guess, followed by the date because you'll want to practice first in first out just like how you do it with expressed breast milk. Next up was I made sure I stocked up on the food storage container. As you can see from the picture, I bought 3 boxes of the Baby Food Storage Cups which is really handy when you first introduce purées to baby of 6 months onwards. The quantity you feed is about there, you start with a tablespoon then two and you gradually increase to an ounce to two during the introduction stage and it stores the perfect amount of purées required. So for every box, it comes with 8 storage cups on a tray that can store for a maximum of two ounces. It cost about RM 20-25 for each box. I really love this storage cups because not only does it store the perfect amount of purées, it comes with a tray that you can easily stack up on top of the other one, saving more space for other stuffs you might need to keep frozen. Like in my case, my expressed breast milk. Having enough of space in the freezer is crucial. So this storage cups are highly recommended. And thirdly, for the whole purpose of JUST preparing her food, I bought a new pot that comes with lid and a separate steamer insert for easy steaming. I just wanted a pot that is specifically just for making baby's food. While this was not in my to-buy-list, the last important item is having a blender for the sole purpose of puréeing. My mom got this blender/juicer that's from China, it's a 6 piece set. She already have blender and a juicer so she gave me so that I can use it just to make baby's food. The blender served us good. Still is.

I usually opt to steam the fruits and veges and some other that taste better through roasting, I'll opt to roast. The food which I usually steam are apples, pears, plums, peaches, sweet potato, green beans, carrots and corns. The food I roast is pumpkin and parsnip. They taste so much better when it's roasted compared to steam. As for banana, avocado & mango, I purée them as it is. For every food I've made for Cadence, I will always taste the food to make sure that the food I prepared would be something I would eat. If it taste bad or if I can't bring myself to stomach it, then I wouldn't want to give my baby something I wouldn't eat. At least that's the motto I practiced now after learning my lesson from Ezra.

Apple Purées or Pear Purées
 Ingredient:
> 2 Red Delicious Apple
or
> 2 Packham Pear

Method:

1. Wash the apples or pears. Cut the apples/pears in 4. Remove the seeds & core. Place on a plate.
2. Steam for 15 minutes or till soft. 
3. Scrap the apples off the skin. Put in blender together with the juice from steaming.
4. Blend & store.

 ** The same approach goes to peach & plum and sweet potato.

Baby Green Bean Purées or Baby Corn Purées
 Ingredient:
> A packet of baby green bean
or
> A packet of baby corn
> water

Method:

1. Wash the green bean or baby corn. Cut the vegetables in half or 2 inches long.
2. Steam till soft. Approximately 20 to 30 minutes long.
3. Put in blender and add the juice from steaming. In the event the juice from the steam vegetables is not enough, you can always add water to water down the purées.
4. Blend & store.

Banana Purées or Mango Purées or Avocado Purées
 Ingredient:
> 2 very ripe banana
or
> One small mango
or
> One ripe avocado
> breast milk or milk or water

Method:

1. Cut the banana or mango into smaller portion (blendable portion). For avocados, spoon the avocado into the blender.
2. Add in some water to ease the blending for banana and mango or you can add in some breast milk to reach your preferred consistency. For avocado, preferably add in breast milk or milk so that it comes out creamy.
3. Blend & store. 

** In the event if the purées are too thick and too creamy for your baby, you may add in breast milk or normal milk even after it's thawed to thin out the consistency.

Pumpkin Purées or Parsnip Purées
 Ingredient:
> Quarter pumpkin
or
> One parsnip

Method:

1. Wash and clean the pumpkin, remove the seeds. For parsnip, wash and remove the skin.
2. Cut into ideal size. Place in the oven. Place the pumpkin skin down or sideways, parsnip any way. Place a little bit of water in the oven. (As Cadence was 8 months old, I drizzle a bit of olive oil on the vegetables)
3. Roast for 40 minutes to an hour long at 175 C. Skin of the pumpkin would be wrinkled and the pumpkin would feel soft when pressed. Parsnip would be tender.
4. Scrape out the pumpkin "meat" and then blend and store. 

** You may mix the purées after its thawed to your liking or you may store the purées half and half in a cup as you like.

Labels & pen to label the purées and the date.

Baby food storage cups. 8 cups per tray that stores 2 oz each. Cost about RM20-25

My steamer and pot with lid bought for the whole purpose for making her food.

Mango

Mango puréed in blender

Mango purées into the storage cups

Apple & Pear steamed

Steamed apple scraped

Apple sauce purées & pear purées

Avocado

A comb of banana. This is pisang emas which Cadence doesn't really favor. She prefers pisang berangan or Cavendish banana. They don't turn black as fast. And I usually gotta keep it till it's very ripe.

Chopped banana into the blender.

Banana purées

Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin/winter squash), orange sweet potato, japanese sweet potato & baby carrots

Baby carrots

Baby carrots purées

Kabocha (japanese pumpkin/winter squash)

Kabocha (japanese pumpkin/winter squash) purées

Orange sweet potato

Orange sweet potato into the blender

Japanese sweet potato (yellow)

Japanese sweet potato (yellow)

Labelled & dated

L-R: Orange sweet potato, kabocha, baby carrots & yellow Japanese sweet potato purées

L-R: Apple sauce, mango & pear purées

Steamed, puréed, stored, labelled & stacked. Background scene: EBF (Expressed frozen breast milk)

Recipes: Dry Loh Shee Fun

OD-ed on outside food that I decided I had to cook lunch last weekend. Couldn't bear to go through another 'What to eat?' weekend so I figured I'll make something simple and since my hubs isn't a big fan of yellow egg noodle, I had to forgo making fried noodle and opt for loh shee fun or otherwise known as rat tail's noodle. Sounds disgusting I know and no, it's not made from rat's tail. It's just the look of this noodle kinda resemble rat's tail thus the name. Loh Shee means rat in cantonese while fun means starch? Well wiki has a better explanation, so here's the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_needle_noodles. Recipes are all based on estimation, as usual.

Kon Lou Loh Shee Fun

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of loh shee fun or rat tail's noodle
• 200 - 300 grams of minced pork
• A packet of porkball 
• 10-15 small shallots (sliced thinly)
• 6 pips of garlic (minced)
• 1 bundle of baby Kai Lan (optional)
• 1 packet of Kuey Tiau (Flat Rice Noodles)
• 1-2 stalk Spring Onion
• Chillies
• Oyster sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Dark soy sauce
• Pepper
• Sugar
• Water

Method:
1. Boil water and add in the pork balls to cook it. Or if you have clear chicken broth or is making soup, you can cook the pork balls in the soup. Once cooked, remove the pork balls. 

2. Marinade the minced pork with oyster sauce, light soy sauce, pepper and sugar. In a pan, heat oil, stir fry a generous amount of sliced shallots and minced garlic. Before it starts to brown, put in the minced pork and stir fry till cooked. Taste along, add oyster sauce, light soy sauce and sugar if more is needed. Put in the pork balls for a quick cook, so to coat the pork balls with flavors. 

2. Fry the shallots till golden brown. Remove and put in aside. 

3. Boil water to cook the noodle for 5 mins long. Drain once cooked and set aside. 

4. If you are opting for some vegetables like I did for a balance diet, boil the vegetables of your choice. To make the sauce, in a pan, heat some oil, stir fry minced garlic and sliced shallots till before brown, add in oyster sauce and light soy sauce and mixed immediately and turn off fire. Pour over vegetables. 

5. To make the sauce, dark soy sauce, water, sugar and light soy sauce mix and heat for few mins in a pan or pot just to thoroughly mix it. 

6. Sliced spring onions and cut chillies. Serve.

7. Assemble. First take noodle. Add a bit of black sauce, put the minced pork on top followed a generous amount of fried shallots (thats the secret ingredient!), spring onions followed by pork balls.

Recipes: Kuey Tiau Soup

One of my favorite food to prepare over the weekends because it's easy peasy and everyone will definitely chow this down even kids because it's soupy and non spicy. You can't possibly go wrong with soupy noodles. My mom made this all the time, so I've grown to love having 'DIY' my own Kuey Tiau Th'ng. And by DIY I mean I can determine what are the sides and the amount of sides to put in my bowl of noodles. Like I can be very generous with the shredded chicken I put into my hubby's bowl of noodles and elsewhere for me, I love my veges and it's super crucial that I have some form of veges in my diet for each meal, so instead of the typically served taugeh (bean sprouts) by hawker stalls because taugeh's are dirt cheap with probably little nutriets, I can opt for some green vegetables. I usually add onions and carrots to my soup because these two will sweeten the soup and I will cube the carrots to add to the bowl of noodles. So all in all this recipe is the type of recipes where it's really flexible and you can improvised according to what you have in the fridge or as you like or you can copy exactly like what hawker sellers normally serves and you can substitute the type of noodles according to your preference.

Kuey Tiau Th'ng or Kuey Tiau Soup 

Recipes enough for 4-5 pax

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Chicken
• Pork (perhaps the size of your palm)
• Fish Cake
• Fishball
• 2 small carrots (whole)
• 3 bulbs big red onion (whole)
• 1 bundle of baby Choy Sum (optional)
• 1 packet of Kuey Tiau (Flat Rice Noodles)
• 1-2 stalk Spring Onions
• 2 big Chillies
• 10 small cili padi (bird's eye chili)
• 5 shallots
• 8 pips garlic
• 2 cubes of chicken stock
• Tong Chai & Tua Tao Chai (optional for flavors)
• Water
• Oil

Method:
1. Clean all the ingredients. Rinse the chicken, pork, fish cake, fishball and choy sum. Peel the carrot and big red onion and leave it as whole. Sliced shallots thinly and minced the garlic.

2. Boil a pot of water. Once boiled, put in the pork, carrot and onions. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes and turn down the heat to continue to simmer it for 30 to 40 minutes.

3. Put in the chicken and fish cake to cook once the pot of soup has turned color. Add the chicken stock and tong chai. Boil the chicken for about 20-30 minutes. Do not overcooked the chicken. The fish cake will float once it's cooked.

4. Removed the chicken, fish cake, pork and carrots (once it's already soft). Shred chicken, pork and fish cake thinly. Cube the carrots. Return the chicken bones to the pot of soup for more flavors. Add the fish balls last.

5. Boil or steam the choy sum or vegetables of your choice. Cut into two or three portion. 

6. Boil the noodles of your choice.

7. In another pan, heat some oil and fry the shallots and garlic till golden brown. Set aside.

8. Cut spring onions for garnishing. Cut chillies and add light soya sauce for dipping.

9. Assemble your noodles with the sides. Add the soup. Bon appétit.

* If you do not want to put chicken stock cubes, you can always omit and just go for just salt for healthier choice.

Carrots, Onions, Pork, Chicken, Fish cake and Fish balls.

Sliced shallots and minced garlic.

Pork, carrots, onions and tua tao chai into the pot of boiling water.

Chicken, fishcake and fish ball into the soup. Removed once cooked and to be shredded.

Boil choy sum

Preparation done. Shallots and onions fried till golden brown for garnishing. Spring onions cut for garnishing. Kuey Tiau boiled. Chicken, pork and fish cake shredded. Carrots cubed, choy sum cut.

DIY or assembling the noodles

Tadah! Ready to savour.

For the little boy.

Recipes: Chilli crab

My hubby has been hard at work so this dish cooked is my way of showing him my appreciation for all he has done for the family. There's nothing like home cooked food that's cook from the heart filled with love. As the saying goes, 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach'.

As usual, whenever I wanna cook something for the first time, I usually pick up the phone and dial 'Mummy'. Even though I surf for recipes, at the end of the day I will still rely on my mother for recipes that she knows how to cook. I can't say my mom is the world's best cook as there are definitely way better cooks out there but my mother is of course in my world, the best cook. Since I left home some 10 years ago, I appreciate what she cooks for me more and I'm always looking forward to her cooking when I go back home. Though once in a blue moon I'll be ungrateful and start critiquing her cooking. She always say with me calling her so often asking how to cook one thousand and one things, but not once have I cook for her. My excuse is why would I wanna bother to cook for somebody that is way better than me. Lol, the fact is I miss her cooking a lot and going back home is the only time I get to taste her cooking. But I made a vow that I'll start cooking for her in return when she's too old and tired to cook plus I still have a lot to learn. Occasionally I still screw up the recipes. So this is my mother's recipe of Chili Crab. My first attempt at cooking it. Pretty successful, however there's still room for improvement.

Chili Crab
Ingredients:

A (to blend)
5 big red chillies
1 bulb garlic
1 inch ginger

B
2 tablespoons soy bean or tau cheong paste (minced or smooth tau cheong)
1 big red onion (sliced)
2 tomatoes (cut into 6)
2 egg beaten
1 stalk spring onions
3 medium size flower or mud crab
Sugar
Light soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Oil
Water
Corn flour

Method:
1. Blend ingredients A. Add a little water to make the blending easier and smoother. If your tau cheong paste is the coarse tau cheong, blend together with chili paste. Otherwise, there's no need to blend it together.

2. Clean the crab. Peel the shell off, cut crab into half. Separate the pinchers. Set aside.

3. Heat oil, sauté the blend chili paste and the tau cheong paste till aromatic and the oil break. Add in the sliced onion and tomatoes. Stir fry for a few minutes, add in the crab. Stir fry for another 5 minutes to coat the crab.

4. Add about 2 (+/-) cups water. Add in taste like oyster sauce, sugar, salt or light soy sauce. Adjust accordingly. Beat in the egg. To thicken the sauce, mix water and corn flour and gradually pour in till preferred thicken consistency. If the egg has thicken the sauce, you may omit the corn flour. Simmer another 5-10 mins till crab is cooked. Scoop up, garnish with spring onions and salad and serve. Bon appétit.

* Asian cooking usually relies a lot on estimation. So a lot of the times when it comes to tasting, it depends a lot on the individual preferences. The recipe act only as a guideline.

Chillies, Big onion, Garlic, Ginger, Tomatoes

Top: Flower Crab
Bottom: Blended Ingredient A, Sliced onions, Soy bean paste, Egg beaten, Sliced tomatoes

Soy bean paste

The end result, garnish with spring onions