junior kitchen

School’s out and we’re in summer mode around here. The kids are spending laid back days swimming and trying to avoid heat stroke.
In an ongoing effort to keep the kids from dehydrating I keep pushing water but they rebel and demand juice or, worse, soda. I’m not an ogre and I love an ice-cold soda on a hot day but all these store-bought, high-fructose corn syrup goodies get expensive when they’re hitting you up all day long.

Kitchen Daughter, however, discovered this thing.  It was a brief reference in The Children’s Quick and Easy Cookbook on the page about ice cream sodas. Without the ice cream, the recipe said, you can make Italian sodas.

The idea took hold almost immediately.  Within a week, she was not only making her own - not only teaching Nai-Nai how to make them - but she was even devising her own ingredients. She had become an Italian soda Jedi.

Kitchen Daughter and her grandmother made some syrup from jabuticaba berries (remember them?) by boiling them down and adding a small amount of sugar. (OK, maybe more than a little.)  Right now, there are so many fruits in season you can make your own, but if time’s an issue you can buy a bottle of syrup from the store. Try some of the interesting ones like guava or passion fruit to add a different kick.

Kitchen Daddy gives us an exclusive interview with Daughter, Italian soda Jedi:

KD: So, how do you make an Italian soda?

D: First, you need a chopstick, and a bottle of soda water, and this new invented syrup that me and my grandma made. It is really good.

KD: How much of each ingredient? And how do you put them together?

D: You need one cup! Next, you pour in the soda water in it until it fills to the top!

KD: That much soda water?

D: Oh, no! About half a large glass if  you have a large glass, or half a small glass if you have a small glass.

KD: So you have half a glass of soda water.

D: That’s right. Don’t forget at least two or three ice cubes! Or four! And some syrup.

KD: How much syrup?

D: A lot! Put some syrup in the bottom until it’s so dark, it’s completely dark!

KD: So it just gets dark by itself?

D: Yup.

KD: Aaaand… is that what you use the chopstick for?

D: Yes! You stir it! And that’s how you make Italian soda! Ta-daaa!

To recap:  Pour a glass of seltzer water (which has no sugar or sodium) on ice, add a quarter cup (or less) of syrup, stir and have your own coool soda pop drink.

This is another recipe from this fabulous book. I can’t seem to stay away from the Burma chapter which is where this shrimp curry comes from. It’s shockingly simple to make, but comes out as good as anything in a restaurant.

The kids like popping off the tails of the shrimp while we eat. Anything to get hands in the food, I guess.

Ingredients

• 1 lb fresh large shrimp, shelled and cleaned
• 1 Tbs fish sauce
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 Tbs minced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground tumeric
• 1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
• 2 small tomatoes, cut in wedges
• 1 green finger-length chili, halved lengthwise (again, we just subbed this by adding a little extra dried pepper at the right moment)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs chopped cilantro

Marinate the shrimp in the fish sauce for at least 15 minutes. While that’s going on….

Heat the oil in a pan and stir-fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes (the book says, “until fragrant,” but they kind of start out that way, so, well, I guess “just before they’d start turning brown” is what they mean). Stir in the turmeric. Lower the heat and add the chili pepper flakes, tomato, green chili (if you’ve got it) and salt. Cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring until it’s mushy (an excellent job for enthusiastic young chefs). Congratulations, you’ve made a curry paste.

Add the shrimp and cilantro and cook for another 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, till the shrimp are done.

And that’s it. Heat a pan, add things in the right order, and then put it on rice. Done. Delicious.

Edamame is a wonderful snack for kids. These are fresh soybeans.

“Edamame” is a Japanese name, but as a snack food, they originally came from China. These days, they also come from local grocery stores. If you can’t find them fresh, check the freezer section.

Opening up the pods is fun and the kids don’t even know they’re eating something super healthy. You gotta love stealth nutrition head games.

Anyway, the easy way we cook these little pods is to boil a big pot of water with plenty of salt, put them in and let them boil until they are bright green - about 3-5 minutes.

After they’ve cooled off, you squeeze the pod and pop out the beans.

Homemade mustard is very good.

This was what we gave as gift for Mother’s Day this year. Because our mothers are very good. And very sharp. The recipe we used we adapted from here. It makes a very sharp mustard but it did mellow after being in the fridge for a few days.

The mothers in the junior kitchen family are also known to mellow after being in the fridge for a few days.

You’d mellow, too, after having some of this mustard.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup mustard powder (we used Colman’s because it was available at our local grocery; next time, I think I’ll check out the Asian market to see what they offer for mustard powder)
• 1/4 cup water
• 6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced (about 1/2 teaspoon)
• 2 teaspoons honey (or, umm, maybe a bit more as we tweaked.)
• 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1. Whisk together mustard powder and 1/4 cup of water in a small heatproof bowl and let sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes. (And, after the whisking is done, your helpers will love the little tins Colman’s comes in.) Meanwhile, bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a small pot.

2. Add vinegar, garlic, brown sugar, honey and salt to mustard mixture and whisk to combine. Place the bowl over the simmering water (the bowl shouldn’t touch the water) and steam it, stirring frequently, until the mustard is slightly thickened and yellow-brown and the taste has mellowed a little, about 7-10 minutes. (If you remember treacle sponge, you’re already an expert steamer. Colman’s, like Lyle’s Golden Syrup, is a proud product of the Empire. The Empire that steams its food.)

3. Cover and immediately refrigerate. Keep refrigerated at least 24 hours before using. The longer it sits, the more mellow and blended it gets. It also thickens over time - so don’t panic if it at first seems like a watery, too-sharp mess. Your faith will be rewarded. If it’s still too hot, try adding a smidge more of vinegar or a dollop more of honey. But that shouldn’t be necessary. Really. Believe in the refrigerator.

Serve on a grilled cheese sandwich or on bread with cheese and beer.

You may know it as Myanmar, but, to us, it’ll always be the place where they know how to do something tasty with eggplant. (That and the former home of some frankly bizarre monetary policy, but let’s not go there.) We found this recipe in this outstanding Asian cookbook.

It’s a bit like baba ghanoush (or even eggplant bharta) with a far(ther) Eastern twist.

Ingredients

• 2 large eggplants
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons finely sliced onion, soaked in water
• 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 tablespoons chopped roasted peanuts
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds (I also added about a 1/2 tsp of sesame oil for flavor)
• 2 bird’s-eye chilies, finely sliced (OK, so we substituted about a Tbsp of red pepper flakes)
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Grill the eggplants over a charcoal flame (or, you know, in an oven, or on a stovetop grill) until the skin is lightly charred and the flesh is soft. Let cool. While that’s going on, chop the peanuts and, if you’ve got untoasted sesame seeds, try toasting them in a non-stick pan. (Ours didn’t turn out exactly right, so Kitchen Daddy sprinkled some sesame oil over it, too, for the flavor.) Discard the skin and mash the flesh. Heat the cooking oil, add the garlic and deep-fry until crisp. We also added the pepper flakes at this point to get some spice into the oil. Remove with a slotted spoon and retain the oil.

Place the eggplant, onion, garlic, peanuts, sesame, chili, and fish sauce in a salad bowl.

Add 1 teaspoon of the garlic-infused oil and mix well. Garnish with cilantro. Like most garlicky things, this gets better after being refrigerated for a day. It seems to taste better at room temperature, too.

Cucumber season is upon us! We delight in a variety of dishes that have cucumbers in them but our all-time favorite is a simple cucumber salad ideal for keeping little hands busy.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 cucumbers
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons sugar (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
• 1/2 cup water

Peel the cucumber and cut it lengthways.

Remove the seeds by running a spoon down the center where they grow. A cucumber is basically a melon. Pretend you’re scooping out a melon. Or making a jack-o-lantern.

Cut the cucumbers into bite-sized pieces.

Mix the vinegars and the sugar in a bowl. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the water and then the cucumbers. Refrigerate for a couple of hours and serve chilled.

Okay, usually taco night means we take it easy. Just buying a can of refried beans seems like the thing to do, right? But this time I thought I would try making refritos from scratch with dried beans using a recipe from this cook book.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of pinto beans, soaked in water overnight
• 1 level Tablespoon cumin seeds
• 1 level Tablespoon coriander seeds
• 4 Tablespoons sunflower oil (canola or veggie if that’s what you have)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• Salt to taste

Drain and rinse the beans. Place in a large saucepan with fresh water to cover. Bring to a boil. A foam will rise to the surface of the pan; scoop it off and discard. Cover the pan and simmer until the beans are tender. Drain.

Meanwhile, toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a hot skillet for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Grind in a spice grinder or using a pestle and mortar. (Or, um, just use the pre-powdered kind. This is, after all, taco night.) Set aside.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat and saute the onion gently until soft (but not brown or it will be bitter). Add the ground spices and saute with the onion for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Add the onion mixture to the drained beans. Remove from the heat and mash with a potato masher until the beans are broken down. If necessary, add some broth to get a thick consistency. Add salt.

And there. Something better than any can can provide. Great on soft tacos, over rice or just on their own with a little grated cheese on top.

The nice thing about having kids in the kitchen is sometimes they can be extremely thoughtful in planning a special treat for you when you’re feeling under the weather. This dish Daughter planned all by herself - she called it a cake, but this was even better. She asked Kitchen Dad to pick up the ingredients and she washed the berries and assembled the dish herself. Instant gratification with a can of whipped cream!

Ingredients

• Fresh berries. Daughter chose strawberries and raspberries but any favorite berries are just fine.
• Whipped cream

Wash the berries and cut off any leaves or stems.

Arrange the berries on a plate or in a bowl as artistically as possible.

Cover with whipped cream.

Serve! Enjoy!

Here is a link for a technique for making fresh whipped cream, if you’re feeling like going the extra mile. There is a certain joy, for small fingers, in up-ending the can and letting fly.

Inspired by the weather being extremely pleasant at this time of year, we decided to take the kids the park for a picnic supper. I searched for an easy-to-prepare dish that would travel well and found this at Cook Sister’s blog. I had hoped to make it using the basil as she did, but our basil plants are a little skimpy right now so I had to improvise. I used my vegetable peeler and added some very thin slices of zucchini to the salad and Daughter tossed in some black olives instead of green. On the side, we packed sliced tomatoes in balsamic vinegar. The picnic was a success and by the time we sat down to eat the feta cheese on the salad had become even more creamy and this just added to its deliciousness.

It’s good to get out of the kitchen and have some fun!

These delicious cookies are from Martha Stewart’s Cookies. Our beneficent domestic majesty originally called these “Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies,” but we were out of nuts so this is the walnut-less version… and I also used chocolate chips instead of chopping my own chocolate.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 large)
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together both flours, salt and baking soda in a bowl.

Put butter and both sugars into a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low, add egg and vanilla and mix until combined.

Next, mix in banana, add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Finally, stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Drop dough onto greased baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set. Transfer cookies to wire racks.

Let cool and serve.