Eat Up
Food for children of all ages
Mark Hix
with Suzi Godson
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain in 2000 by Fourth Estate
Copyright © Mark Hix & Suzi Godson 2000
Mark Hix & Suzi Godson assert the moral right to be identified as the authors of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007146772
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007405169 Version 2016-09-09
For Ellie, Lydia, Scarlet, Ruby and Amber
Contents
Weights, Measures and Servings
Weights, Measures and Servings
When our twin girls, Ellie and Lydia, were born, like many fathers I didn’t feel I could get very involved in feeding them. Initially, they were breastfed but this was exhausting for my wife, Suzie, so we were both relieved when they started drinking formula milk because it meant we could share the almost constant feeding. A diet consisting entirely of formula seemed an awful way for babies to inaugurate their tastebuds but mine drank pints of the stuff and the fridge was crammed with 8oz bottles for months. I couldn’t wait to get them on to proper food.
When they finally moved on to ‘solids’, I sampled a few jars of baby food out of curiosity. Although they’re supposed to be completely natural I didn’t think they tasted anything like their original ingredients. As a chef, I had ambitions for Ellie’s and Lydia’s little palates even then, and I would experiment with purées of freshly cooked vegetables at the weekends and freeze them for Suzie to use during the week. My schedule was so hectic that getting to feed Ellie and Lydia, or even eating together as a family, was a rare treat, so I concentrated on making their food a bit special. We wanted to get them used to flavour and variety but, even more importantly, by making their food at home we knew exactly what was in it. Commercially processed food can be a valuable standby but it is not nearly as tasty as the fresh, home-cooked alternative.
In a professional kitchen, chefs create dishes by mixing complementary flavours, whether it’s carrot and cardamom, beetroot and horseradish or something as classic as peas and mint. With Ellie and Lydia we used potato and parsnip as a base to introduce vegetables such as pumpkin, carrots, leeks and other root vegetables. As they got older, we added small quantities of spices such as cumin and fresh ginger. We put everything we could in the blender and sometimes the purées were so tasty that Suzie and I would eat a chunkier version as an accompaniment to meat or fish.
It became apparent early on that Ellie and Lydia preferred the taste of banana and sweet vegetables such as parsnip and butternut squash to more savoury flavours such as avocado and potato. What I found interesting about the purée stage was the fact that, because all the food has the same smooth consistency, likes and dislikes are based entirely on taste, not appearance, texture or presentation. It was much easier feeding Ellie and Lydia at this stage. Their senses