Fish Porridge

Fish, tomato and wolfberries porridge.

Sorry I realise I only have one pic of a fish porridge..

When I make fish porridge, i prefer to steam the fish separately with a slice of ginger over it. This way i can mash the fish up and remove all the bones instead of risking the bone disappearing into the porridge.

Notice the big piece of garlic in the porridge? It makes such a difference to add in garlic.. oh the fragrance and taste difference it makes.

I prefer to throw this in right from the start. By the time porridge is cooked, the garlic will be soft and u can mash and mix it into porridge and serve it to baby.

I also boiled a egg and added in the eg yolk..

POrky POrky POrridge!

If you dont take pork, feel free to swap the meat for chicken.. works just as well..

Pork, broccoli and wolfberry porridge

Pork, spinach, egg yolk and wolfberries porridge.

pork, broccoli, cauliflower and carrot porridge

For all veges (except potatoes, carrots, etc. all the hard veges), i usually put it in midway or when it is almost cooked.. i also like to put in a clove or two of garlic into the porridge right from the start. adds taste, fragrance and boosts immunity..

different styles of chicken porridge..

All the different kinds of combi u can have with chicken in porridge..


Chicken and Apple porridge


It may sound weird to pair apple and chicken in a savoury porridge but its actually quite nice!

I give to BabyS when she has diarrhoea becos rice and Apple are good for stopping diarrhoea. Any type of red apple will do.

Put rice, chicken stock and chicken into slow cooker to cook. Midway, put in chopped vegetables (1 table spoon of raw chopped vegetable per portion of porridge. I used nai bai leaves here) and finaly diced apples. The apples will further disintergrate after cooking.

Chicken and Brocolli with egg yolk (give egg yolk only after 8 months)

Purple sweet potato, green vege and chicken porridge.. the purple sweet potato made the whole pot of porride purple!

Home Made Stock

I remember the first time BabyS had porridge.. Cos it was the only time i ever remember her rejecting food! hee...



My mum had cooked porridge with PLAIN WATER, separately steamed codfish and added it into the porridge. BabyS took 2 small mouthfuls and refused to open her mouth after that. My mum gave up trying for quite a while and even when we made cereal, my girl was still a bit cautious and didnt wanna open her mouth in case we fed her the 'yucky plain white stuff"..

I tasted it, really quite plain, except for the natural sweetness of the fish.

So I googled and read books again and found some sites that advised to cook porridge with stock. So thats what my mum did. She made chicken stock and cooked porridge with it and tadah! BabyS ate it all up!

Again a slow cooker is very useful when it comes to making stock. It saves u from having to keep watch at the stove and this time can be spent bonding with your children instead!

Ingredients that you may use in stock: (you may throw in any of these foods but like with all new foods, make sure the pot is not full of things that you child has not been exposed to, so if there is any allergy , its easier to rule out which on is the trigger.  My advice is to add in one new food item each time u make stock. )

~Chicken bones and meat (I learnt from a cooking show, that there should be some meat when making stock and not all just bones. Using meat in a stock will add sweetness)

~ pork bones and meat (but this stock will be heavier in terms of smell and taste)

~ Onions

~garlic (good antioxidant)

~ carrots

~Corn (adds sweetness! yummy!)

~ Potatoes (surprisingly, stock made with potatoes taste different.. in a good way!)

~ tomatoes (my mum throws them in whole)

Alternatively, you may also choose to put in celery, radish.. some pple put in vegetable roots or parts of the veg that u'll normally cut off and not use in a dish such as the tops of carrots..

Some mummies put in ginger into a stock becos it helps with wind issues and adds fragrance. But I dont advise this becos ginger is heaty. If you use the stock for all the meals in a row, u are going to end up with a very heaty baby. I would suggest adding the ginger into the porridge when you are cooking it instead.

For chicken and pork stock, blanch these in a pot of boiling water for a few secs (until the outside layer changes colour). This gets rid of the smell, the meat wouldnt be bloody and u will not get as much scum.

If you are boiling the stock over a stove, do it over low heat, and ensure it simmers and not bubbling. Heard from a tv show that the bubbling affects the taste.

You may also try adding in ikan bilis or soya bean. We tried ikan bilis b4 but the smell was really strong. And we havent tried soya beans yet.

After the stock is done and cooled, you'll have to filter the stock to get rid of oil and scum.

Oil filter paper from NTUC- $2.14 for 10 pieces

Oil filter paper from Daiso- $2 for 30 pieces (bigger than the above filter paper)

I bought these two filter paper. Used the NTUC ones first b4 I found them in Daiso. My mum (who makes the stock) says the daiso one is better.

In any case, these filters really filter off the scum and oil. U wouldnt wanna serve ur baby all that right? With this filter you no longer need to put the stock into the fridge, let the oil coagulate, scoop out the oil then freeze. I tried putting the filtered stock into the fridge. By the next day, there was no coagulated oil.

Put these paper into a metal sieve, pour the stock thru the paper and into another container or bowl below.

You can freeze the stock in a big container, ice cube, smaller containers or plastic bags and take these out only when you want to use them.

When we used to cook porridge, we will cook two portions at a time, to be eaten for lunch and dinner. So we'll portion out the stock to be frozen in portions enuf for two portions of porridge. This way u dont worry about wastage or if there will be enough stock for the porridge. We also stored them in ice cube trays so if we need smaller amounts, its also avaliable.

Frozen stock can be kept for up to about 2 weeks.

Bringing porridge out..

I bring BabyS out quite often. Shopping, church, etc. I will also bring her porridge along.

When she was eating porridge for lunch and dinner, i'll just prepare two portions at once (2 chinese soup spoons worth of raw rice) and use my thermal flask to store it.

A good thermal flask is worth investing in. Regardless of brand, as long as it keeps baby's food hot. room temp or cold porridge is yucky, and a breeding ground for bacteria ..

I bought my Zojirushi thermal food flask way back in 2000, when I was almost starting work, cos I was so obsessed with Japanese bentos (still am) and the amazing containers and tupperwares (Still am too!). Well, i didnt get to use it cos too lazy to cook.. Well, almost 10 yrs later I get to use it and it serves me well! I bought it for about $50 plus back then. I bought this brand cos there werent as many brand of thermal food containters as now.

Mine comes with 3 compartments. If i dish the porridge into it at about 8am, by 6pm the porridge is still warm! NOw that babyS has moved onto solids like rice, sides, etc. I still use this and it keeps the heat just as well.

I find the brands Endo and LA gourmet not bad too. And definitely cheaper..

There are BPs (Bulk Purchases) often on the parenting forums like this..

But if you dont go out for long hours like me, then maybe a single serving flask will do.. I have two of those (one LA gourmet and another brand is a china brand). which serve well when I only have one serving of food and I dont wanna lug the huge zojirushi one out..

Lobang tip: Courts at Tampines (Bargain hall L1) has a wide range of cooking equipment, flasks etc liek La Gourmet there. I bought mine there and it was cheaper than what was being sold at departmental stores.. (cannot remember exact price now but remember being absolutely thrilled at the savings).

Ikan bilis powder

I learnt about ikan bilis powder from my forum friends and decided to make my own to add into BabyS porridge since its a good source of calcium.

Preparation Method:
soak ikan bilis in water for 4 hours, change water every hour (to get rid of excess salt)

dry in sun for about 1 plus hour. (if no opportunity to sun then can skip. this just makes cooking time shorter) Or u can just leave it in a sieve for a while to let water drip out.

How to cook the ikan bilis

Stove method: dry fry over low fire for 20- 25 mins or till the ikan bilis feel 'lighter' and tastes crispy. (you'll really be able to feel that its lighter to fry and if u bite on one, its crispy!)

Oven method: toast in oven at 180degrees celsius for 20- 25 mins, stiring occasionally to ensure it doesnt burn too. (http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com/2008/10/ikan-bilis-powder.html)

The ikan bilis turn slighter darker brown after its cooked.

Next after ikan bilis are cooled down, grind them with mill or blender or pestle and motar into fine powder.I prefer to sieve the powder after i'm done.

THe powder is now ready for use.

Store in air tight container and keep in fridge.

I prefer to reheat the powder b4 serving it to BabyS. I'll either put the powder into the porridge just after cooking and b4 dishing it, or i'll microwave it for 20secs, or toast for 1min..

Good to serve with porridge! I occasionally add it into her stir fried veges too!

 

 

Weaning.. Moving along from purees to porridge

I kept BabyS on her cereal and puree diet for about 2 months b4 I decided to move her onto porridge and meats (So she could get her iron intake from meats)

I had alot of questions as to how to make porridge for babies..

 "cook rice grains as per normal, stirring occasionally to get smoother consistency?"

"soak the night b4 and then cook as normal, and stir occasionally to get smoother consistency?"

"grind the rice grains into smaller pieces then cook?"

"mash the porridge after its cooked?"

In the end we decided to make it more water and after that mash it with those mashers meant for mashing potatoes and it worked pretty well. Less time consuming than soaking the night b4, stirring constantly etc..

We used a slow cooker to cook the porridge. THe amount of water you add to the pot also depends on the size of your cooker too.

We bought a small slow cooker from Cornell with a High, Low and Auto function. This cooker was a good investment. If you are like me and dont have an extra pair of hands to take care of the baby while you stay at the stove to watch over the porridge, invest in a slow cooker.

Amt of rice and length of cooking time:
One chinese soup spoon of rice will give you one rice bowl of porridge.

I cannot remember the size of my cooker, but it was the smallest one. And my mum and I would usually add in water till its 1 inch about the rice.

For my slow cooker, to achieve mushy enough porridge, it will either take 3 hours on low or 1.5hours on high (although 1hr is sometimes more than enough)

More on how to cook porridge in the next post!