Five-a-day treats: Polka dot asparagus tarts

Ok, so the tarts don't have polka dots on the photo. The point is that this recipe has the potential to have polka dots, but you might have to do the relevant bit yourself and not leave it to your toddler. The Little Chefs got a bit heavy handed with the asparagus bits, but on the plus side, the less than perfect look did not stop them from eating up all these healthy treats!

For 24 tarts

Ingredients:

250 g plain flour
125 g cold butter
1 egg yolk
Pinch of salt
Cold water

Or 250 g shop bought shortcrust pastry

300 g asparagus
300 ml double cream
2 eggs, beaten
100 g Gruyère cheese, grated

Method:

- cut the butter into cubes and mix with the flour with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs
- mix in pinch of salt and egg yolk until it comes together as a ball of dough - add a drop of water if necessary
- chill in the fridge for 20 minutes
- or remove packaging from ready made pastry

- preheat oven to 180'C / fan 160'C
- place paper muffin cases into the holes of two muffin trays
- roll out the pastry and cut out circles with a pastry cutter larger than the holes of the muffin tray
- place a pastry circle in each paper case and press them down so they come up at the sides and form a pastry case
- blind bake for 15 minutes

- in the meantime, steam the asparagus for 5 minutes
- puree about half of the asparagus with a stick blender
- chop the remaining asparagus into 1 cm slices
- mix the cream, cheese, eggs and asparagus puree
- spoon the mixture into the blind baked pastry cases
- place a few asparagus slices in each tart, so that the cut (round) ends face upwards
- bake for 20 minutes until golden on top

And a few tips:
- my way of blind baking the tarts was to place baking beans in paper muffin cases and put one on top of each tart - this recipe is pretty fiddly if you do it from scratch, so don't expect your toddler to be eager to participate throughout the whole process: it might be a good idea to make the dough together and then leave it in the fridge and do the filling later
- I'm not sure it's entirely necessary to blind bake: please let me know if you have experience doing it without
- the asparagus has quite a delicate taste, so it works well if you add some extra strong tasting ingredients, such as red onions or bacon - I would fry these before you add them to the filling

*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*

Five-a-day treats: Raspberry ice lollies

Summer has arrived in Oxford: time for ice lollies! You can get a kit to make them, but I didn't have one, so just used ice cube trays and some straws.

Ingredients:

Raspberries
Apple juice
Ice cube trays
Drinking straws

Method:

- place a raspberry in each hole of the ice cube tray- cut the straw in 1.5 cm long bits and stick one into each raspberry
- fill the holes with apple juice
- place in the freezer for 2 hours

And a few tips:
- when they're done, you can put a longer piece of straw into the short one sticking out of the ice lollies, to make a longer handle. The reason for the short straw in the first place is that this way it stays upright as it is freezing.
- substitute other berries, grapes and any other type of juice

*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*

Five-a-day treats: Carrot muffins

In the next few weeks we'll be trying out a few vegetable based recipes, all of which hopefully will be fun to make and to eat. This week we started with carrot muffins - for added attractiveness we baked them in butterfly- and bug-shaped cake moulds. 

For 8 muffins

Ingredients:

200 g self raising flour
175 g light brown sugar
2 teaspoons mixed spice
Zest of 1 orange
2 eggs, beaten
150 g melted butter
200 g grated carrots

Method:

- preheat the oven to 180'C/fan 160'C and line a muffin tray with paper cases
- mix the flour, sugar, mixed spice and orange zest in a large bowl
- mix eggs and melted butter in another bowl
- add egg mixture to dry ingredients, mix till just about combined, then stir in grated carrots
- spoon equal amounts of batter into each muffin case and bake for 20 minutes

And a few tips:
- butternut squash works equally well instead of carrots
- toddlers don't tend to overmix the batter - make sure you let them do the mixing, the lumpier the mixture, the lighter your muffin will be

*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*

Egg course part 3: Separation eggsiety - American pancakes

The advanced level when it comes to eggs: separating the yolks and whites. Advanced but certainly not impossible: the 3 year old Little Chefs did wonderfully and we only needed a few back up eggs. And of course, practice makes perfect!

How the Little Chefs did it:

- as before, they cracked the eggs on the edge of table, and not the bowl, as the latter isn't stable 

- each white and yolk went to separate cups before pouring them into the bowls, in case one wasn't fresh

- a bit of white in the yolk is not a problem, the aim is to deliver the yolk intact

And when we have separated all the eggs, we performed the kitchen magic of turning the runny, transparent egg whites into stiff, white foam - and all in the good cause of preparing American pancakes. Now this recipe is from Jamie Oliver, so not very American; and the American and Canadian Little Chefs (and their mums) didn't quite recognise it as their traditional method, however, the result is delicious and it's quick and easy. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 eggs

120 g plain flour

150 ml milk

1 teaspoon of baking powder

butter

200 g blueberries

Method:

- separate the eggs into two large bowls

- mix the yolks with the flour, baking powder and milk

- whip the whites with an electric whisk till it forms stiff peaks

- gently fold the whites into the yolk mixture

- heat a pan on medium heat and melt a teaspoon of butter

- drop two or three ladlefuls of batter into the pan, so that they don't touch (whether two or three, will depend on the size of your pan)

- sprinkle some blueberries on each pancake, and smear their tops with a bit of extra batter, so the berries don't burn when you flip the pancakes over

- give them a few minutes, then turn each pancake over, cook them for 2 more minutes

And a few tips:

- replace blueberries with sliced bananas, sweet corn, or anything you fancy, just don't forget about the bit of extra batter on top

- cooking time will depend on the size of your pancakes and the filling, so make sure you check whether it's cooked through

- when you fold in the whites, you don't have to be terribly thorough, the more air that remains in the mixture, the lighter your pancakes will be

- for a sugary but delicious version, drench in maple syrup

*The bold text in the recipe shows the steps that the Little Chefs did (with supervision).*