There is a place for hiding things, making things look tasty, or familiar but if you never offer fish that looks like fish or meat that looks like meat, how will your child learn to like it?
So, in the supermarket, I picked up some basa and marinaded it in olive oil, lemon and herbs and served it simply with some vegetables. No reason why you shouldn't use a different fish, basa was just chosen for cost purposes. I wasn't sure my son would like it but he did. A lesson in being brave perhaps? Why not try something which looks like real 'adult' food to your kid tomorrow and see what happens? Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
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| Might not look pretty but it tasted good! |
Marinated white fish for the whole family - serves 2 adults (I gave an adult sized portion to my son and he ate about two thirds of it.)
Ingredients
265g Basa fillets or other white fish of your choice
Herbs; I used these fresh herbs from my (new) herb garden; chives, lemon thyme, parsley and common thyme
2 tsp Lemon juice
1 tbsp Olive oil
Method
Cut up the herbs finely, mix with the lemon juice with the olive oil and marinate the fish in the mixture.
Put in the fridge for half an hour or so (any longer and the fish will start to change texture with the acidity and start to look 'cooked' around the edges, that doesn't really matter though, it still tastes great.
Cook at 180oC / 350F for 12 mins or so.
Serve with vegetables, season if liked (for adults) and enjoy! No reason not to feed this to babies on mashed foods as fish mashes beautifully.
I've linked up this post here and here!
I couldn't agree more. My children eat what we eat and have a broad and varied diet. They would love this fish, especially my little girl, who this evening has polished off nearly three quarters of a salmon fillet with broccoli, asparagus and new potatoes. She is 18 months old...
ReplyDeleteThat's brilliant! I think it's where we get children wrong in the US and UK (in general) by feeding kids food which is so far removed from adult food. I do cook things especially for my son but generally we share things where I can. The constant breaded, fatty, mushed up low nutrient quality food cannot be good for our kids.
DeleteThis looks great!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I know it's really simple but then loads of parents buy fishfingers for their kids so there's probably the call for a really simple fish recipe!
DeleteFish is so simple and best cooked in a simple marinade like this. Thanks for the tips
ReplyDeleteI love the simplicity, deliciousness and cheapness of this dish. Made it several times now and do my own variations, tonight I added minced garlic to the marinade. My daughter (11 months old) absolutely loves it and ate 1/2 of a fillet herself tonight, along with steamed veggies. She looked longingly at the roasting dish when she was done and unfortunately my husband and I had polished everything off. Looks like I'll set aside a whole fillet for her next time.
ReplyDeleteThat's great to hear. It disturbs me that kids are often only fed fish in breadcrumbs and often only cod. Fish as fish isn't something to hide I don't think. How can someone start to enjoy a food unless they are exposed to it? I was telling someone the other day about how my son loves mussels. He was blown out of the water (and was trying to sell me some saucepans at the time based upon nutritional benefits of his cooking method). I was in turn shocked by his attitude because if you're passionate about giving your kids a nutritious diet, surely variety is a key thing? Why wait if your child is showing interest? Why wouldn't your child be showing an interest if you cook interesting food?
DeleteI didn't buy the saucepans.
It's good that you didn't buy the saucepans :)
DeleteI grew up in a Southeast Asian country and as such, we grew up eating fish and seafood as a matter of course. So before reading this blog, I didn't even know this was how a lot of kids are fed fish where you live. I assume it's the same in Australia (where I now live). This explains why a lot of my friends are averse to seafood and don't really know how to cook fish. Had my first taste of fish fingers cooked from frozen last week (I was curious because of Dr Who) and I don't know how people can eat that without a lot of sauce or any other condiment to mask the taste.
It's good you've introduced your son to mussels, I loved that along with fish, prawns and calamari growing up.