Pork and Vegetables - a lesson in flavour for babies!

makes 5 portions big enough for my 8 month old

Ok, I’d got into a rut.  Nearly all of the sauces I was making for my son contained milk or cream cheese.  I needed a new recipe.

I had an idea at 3am (while feeding him when I do my best thinking) for a pork dish with apples, although I decided against the apples in the end (as I put sweet potatoes in I thought it might be too sweet), this is what I came up with.

1 pork chop, cut into pieces (any bone removed)

½ oz unsalted butter

5 or so mushrooms, sliced thickly

¼ of a chicken stock cube (low salt) made up to 125ml

1 clove of garlic, peeled

2 sprigs thyme

1 small potato, peeled and chopped

¼ swede, peeled and chopped

½ sweet potato peeled and chopped

Fry the pork in the butter until nicely browned (remember that’s where the flavour is) adding the garlic clove and thyme towards the end.  Add in the stock and mushrooms and cook until the pork and mushrooms are cooked (about 10 mins or so).

Cook the potato, swede and sweet potato (the normal potato takes around 5 mins longer in my experience than the other veg so I add them in after the potato has been boiling for 5 mins).

Remove the garlic and thyme from the pork.  Puree the pork and mushrooms with the stock and mash the veg mixing the two together.  Mashing the veg starts to get your little one used to lumpier textures.

Now this was all great but just after hitting the “go” button on my liquidiser I realised I’d not removed the garlic.  I tasted it, it tasted nice actually, I’d certainly have eaten it but the garlic was in your face rather than subtle.  I thought “what the hey” and tried him on it anyway and my little gourmand wolfed it down!  I might use half a clove next time if I’m intending to leave it in as now both of us have garlic breath but it’s a salutary lesson that you should not make baby food too bland.