Baby’s first holiday fish dish
Aka Mac 'n everything good.
It’s been a while, we have been busy, but this is such a lovely dish to cook for little ones I wanted to tap it out and encourage any other little ones that didn’t get a holiday so far, to come and join us this autumn.
This is a really good example of simple healthy fast baby friendly food, so easy and not too far off what they may be used to. White fish and veggies with mini macaroni all in one pan. I’m using my one person paella on a low flame in my outside kitchen, but a normal frying pan inside would do if you have a decent extractor fan.
I start with two little white fish fillets (I’m using merluza, ie hake) in a little oil, toss in a chopped garlic clove because it makes everything smell fabulous, half a diced courgette and a few finely sliced green beans. I give them just a few minutes to cook until the fish is done enough to flake a bit then I add a small portion of raw pasta. I like using baby macaroni because it looks familiar like you may use for mac ‘n cheese and small enough to look a little bit like rice in a paella pan. I think bigger penne or spirals would look too Italian for some reason!
Once the pasta is in, I am using 150g, I add twice the volume of water to start with. It will want more I expect but I just add a bit at a time until it’s done. Maybe ten minutes.
On the side I am blanching carrot sticks and green beans and I do also have a sausage on the grill and some steamed broccoli (and a portion of mashed potato) just in case they turn their noses up at my fish dish. No one will go hungry.
Maybe tomorrow the spare mashed potato becomes cod and carrot croquettes. All those courgettes in the first photo are for another recipe later in the day. And the glut of baby plum tomatoes I will slow roast and store in oil.
Full tummies and everyone sleeps well!
Hope to see some of you soon.. Lots of love from the hills. xx
