Banoffee Pie......but not as you know it!

OK, so let's deal with the sugar Nazis first - I am not suggesting that anybody should feed their child on puddings alone and I am not promoting a diet that consists only of cake.  My suggestion is that if your child will only eat a very limited number of things, that you use those things they do like to hide things in that are good for them.  That is to say if they are going to eat cake, let's try to work with what we've got and give them cake that has a few hidden extras.

Now whilst I blow a big fat raspberry at the sugar Nazis, I am an unashamed salt Nazi.  I avoid salt in pretty much everything - I don't add it to anything at all whilst cooking and think there is more than enough of the stuff in pretty much all commercially made products to give us what we might need in our diet.  I am a hypocrite though when it comes to chips - I can't see the point in them without salt and vinegar.  I will probably have a rant about salt and the amount celeb chefs use at a later date.

For now, if your fussy eater will eat Banoffee Pie, then why not try it this way.......

I haven't quite got my food photography thang together, but here's one I made earlier!

I've used a blind baked pie crust here in the picture - that's because I'm from Sussex, just up the road from where banoffee pie originated, and they get sniffy in these parts if it has a biscuit base!  Actually, for the purposes of Secret Cheffing, a biscuit base is actually better.  The recipe below is designed to be a quick fix - this isn't about learning to be a gourmet cook, it's an idea on which I'm going to build all sorts of ways of sneaking in veg to an otherwise nutrition black hole!

As well as 3 of their 5-a-day, this provides a good dose of their Omega 3 brain food too.  For the ground mixed seeds, I use about a tablespoon each of pumpkin, sunflower, linseed, sesame and hemp with a teaspoon of poppy seed and blitz it to a fine powder in a coffee grinder.  You can use just the pumpkin and sunflower though alone.

You'll see that I tend to steam vegetables - this is because they lose less of their nutritional value in steaming than in boiling - when you boil a vegetable, it leeches a lot of goodness into the water, which then gets discarded.


Ingredients: (serves 4)

For the biscuit base:
12 digestive biscuits
50gms butter
1 heaped tablespoon ground mixed seeds
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons Nutella
(Alternatively, you can just use a shop bought pie crust - M&S do great individual portion ones)

For the topping:
125gms chopped dates
4 medium sized parsnips
4 large bananas
400 gm can of caramel/dolce de lecce
Can of squirty cream or any cream whipped (enough to top four ramekins)
Small bar of chocolate to grate

Method:

1.  Blitz the biscuits in the food processor or put them in a food bag and bash them with a rolling pin or pan base until broken into crumbs.

2.  Over a low heat melt the butter and Nutella together.

3.  Tip the biscuit crumbs, mixed seeds and walnuts into the melted butter/Nutella mixture and stir through until combined.

4.  Divide this mixture into four and press into the bottom of four large ramekins or small individual pie dishes and refrigerate to set.

5.  Peel the parsnips and cut into small chunks and either steam until tender (usually about 10 - 12 minutes) or nuke them in the microwave in a little water for about 6 minutes.

6.  In a small pan, simmer the chopped dates in about 3 tablespoons of water (add more if it all evaporates) until they form a caramel like mush, usually about 5 - 6 minutes.

7.  Allow the parsnips and dates to cool for 10 minutes and then puree them together with three of the bananas.

8.  Stir about half the dolce de lecce into the puree, taste and add as much more as you feel you need for taste.

9.  Spoon this mixture over the biscuit bases and then refrigerate again for 10 - 15 minutes.

10.  Finely slice the remaining banana (feel free to add more if you think you can get away with it) and layer over the toffee mixture, so that the surface is completely covered and then squirt cream over the top to cover the whole thing.  Grate some chocolate over the top to decorate.


If you find the caramel mixture too rich, try it without the dates next time - most kids don't then notice the parsnip is there at all!

Picky Eaters.....take the battle away!

I've been lurking on Mumsnet and Netmums reading various threads about fussy eaters.

In some respects its music to my ears, or rather eyes to read how many mums struggle to get their kids to eat a varied diet or indeed anything healthy at all but in other respects its really quite heartbreaking to read page after page of frustration, knowing that these are loving families who just want what's best for their kids and yet are constantly told to do battle.

I've almost finished writing my book on feeding fussy eaters and am in the slow process of taking forward to publication now but I can see that much of the advice is needed NOW!  So, I've decided to start a blog.  I'm not sure how this works or whether this will be the final location and format even but it's a start, at last!

I've been reading a lot about neophobia, which is where kids are quite literally terrified of trying new things and this is apparently behind many fussy eaters.  There seems to be a huge school of thought which says not to pander to a fussy eater and to keep giving them whatever the rest of the family are eating and eventually they'll come round rather than starve.  I find that quite Victorian and barbaric to be honest.  If your kid was afraid of heights you wouldn't dangle him by his toe from the top of a sky-scraper to teach him not to be, would you?  So why make a child confront the fear of new foods?

There are also quite a few techniques put forward by various experts which take a lot of time and effort by the families and probably schools involved too - let's face it a kid who won't eat what you give him at home will probably fill up on what they do like elsewhere.  I find these techniques to be completely unrealistic and they ignore the fact that many of us are working mums who simply don't have the time or the energy to do battle each day with our off-spring.

OK, so less of where everyone else is going wrong and on to where I think I can help you to get it right.

The first step is to sit down with your fussy eater and talk about it - this is probably more productive with older children than with toddlers but even with very small children they can usually express some preferences, even if they can't give reasons for them.  Most fussy eaters realise that they are fussy and different - they probably dread going to friends' homes for meals and finding they can't eat anything on offer, and would love to expand their food repertoire.  So acknowledge with them that their is a bit of a problem and that you want to help them with it.

Then, get down to what it is they do like.  Grade those things, working out the things they really like down to those things they really just tolerate.  Then look at why - is it the taste, the look, the texture, the smell, the fact that they had that food the day they first saw their favourite movie...........and focus on the things they like most.

Next go on to things they know they don't like - specifics and they must be things they have actually tried as opposed to foods they just think they wouldn't like.  Again, grade them and try to work out what it is about these foods they don't like.

Ask them if they would be willing to play a game of blind tasting - they wear a blindfold and they have a bucket or large bowl in front of them and are allowed to spit out foods they don't like.  They need to have a glass of water or something similar to be able to rinse tastes away too.  Try them on foods you know they like as well as sneaking one or two in that you think may be similar in taste but which aren't currently in the "will eat" list.  This should give you an idea of how discerning their taste buds really are!

It can be interesting for them to learn how smell effects the tastebuds - so let them taste foods blindfolded whilst holding their nose - see if they can tell the difference between broccoli and cauliflower!

Once you've got a fair idea of the things they do like, you can start to embark on secret cheffing.......

And that'll be the subject of my next post!