Salmon and Corn Chowder – baby and you

I’ll begin by telling you that this is not a meal I would ever choose to make, or indeed eat. Having said that, once I’d put all the effort in (although there’s not too much of that if I’m honest) I grudgingly sat down to eat it. And was pleasantly surprised. So much so, in fact, that instead of freezing the remainders, we had them the next night, and I’ll definitely be making it again. Especially since Frankie also gobbled down a rather large left-over portion that wouldn’t fit in any of her freezer pots!

Again, if you don’t want all the peeling and chopping, which really doesn’t take too much time at all, you can always buy ready prepped veg. I like to add cheese to some of the meals to make sure the Little One gets some dairy too, and in this dish, it makes it creamier, but you could always leave it out if you’d prefer. As salmon is an oily fish, you should serve this to girls no more than twice a week, and boys up to four. (Big girls and boys can eat it as often as they’d like!) And for a completely veggie version I’d simply leave out the salmon and replace with a variety of beans.

Ingredients:

leeks

celery

potato

carrots

crushed garlic

sweetcorn (I used a tin)

peas (frozen is fine)

salmon (or any other fish)

water (twice as much than the milk)

whole milk (half the quantity of the water)

mascarpone

Method:

Pour a little rapeseed oil into the pan. You’ll need something fairly deep, I used a wok, as it filled up quite quickly! Most pure vegetable oil in the UK is rapeseed so just check the back and it’ll tell you what it’s made from. Rapeseed is one of the better oils to use.

Peel and chop the leeks, celery, potato and carrot into small pieces and fry off until beginning to soften. Add the garlic too.

Pour in enough water to just cover them and leave at a simmer until the potato and carrot are cooked through. Depending on the sizes of the cubes, this will probably take about 15-20 minutes. If the pans begins to look dry, add more water.

Add the corn, peas, salmon (chopped into chunks and checked carefully for bones) and milk. Again, enough milk to cover the ingredients.

Leave to simmer until the salmon is cooked though, probably no longer than 10 minutes, stirring in the mascarpone along the way.

Now, your baby portions are ready.

Baby:

Depending on which stage of weaning you’re at, either use a hand blender to mush baby’s portions until smooth, or simply fork the fish into small pieces and mash the rest. You can then freeze in individual portions.

Grown-Ups:

This recipe is one that definitely needs pepping up as is quite bland as it is, however, salt and pepper will do the trick perfectly.