New Tastes and Textures For Baby

Apple and Blackberry Compote.

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We arrived home in early October from picking blackberries and my little 7 month old son was eagerly looking at the berries, after washing them I decided to make him a treat of steamed apple and berry purée, this recipe is full of flavour and is ideal as a snack in the evening for baby or added in with their rice or porridge in the morning, for natural sweetness I added agave syrup.

Ingredients (4 portions)

2 sweet eating apple, peeled cored and diced

150g ripe blackberries

1/2 tsp natural vanilla extract

1 tbsp agave syrup

Method

  • Steam the apples for about 8 minutes, stir in the blackberries and steam for a further 4 minutes until the berries are soft
  • imagepuree the mixture in a food processor, pass through a sieve to remove the seeds,
  • stir in the vanilla extract and agave syrup
  • Freeze in individual portions and when needed thaw overnight in the fridge.
  • To boost calcium content, you can make apple and blackberry fool by combining 2 – 3 tablespoons of puree with 2 tablespoons of full fat vanilla yogurt,chill until ready to serve

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Still not too late to brine 

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Brining is the technique of soaking meat or fish in a dilute salt solution until the dissolved salt permeates the muscle tissue. You’re shooting for a final concentration of about 0.5% salt throughout.

The challenge with brining is getting the meat or fish deep in the interior to be just as salty as  on the outside.

Unless you know what you’re doing, it’s easy to end up with a steep gradient of saltiness.

For more information on brining follow the link below:

http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/fish-brine/