Take one foodie mother, add two young cooks and watch what happens.
Margaret Brooker is a true foodie. A graduate from Leiths School of Food and Wine in London and the author of five cookbooks, including the Food Lover’s Guide to New Zealand and the encyclopaedic Cook’s Bible of Ingredients, she also contributes a weekly “Food File” column to the Dominion Post. Margaret does all this on top of her role as mother to Alexandra and Charlotte, the co-authors of her latest book, It’s My Turn to Cook, and a full-time job as lawyer for the Food Safety Authority.
Writing Cook’s Bible, Margaret says, consumed her every waking hour for six months, and she was acutely aware of how it affected her family life. After finishing the book, she suggested to her daughters that they write the next book together.
The result is a book written especially for young readers. Every recipe is accompanied by photographs showing simple “how-to” sequences and then the final dish. Margaret may have written the recipes, but they were all tested, tasted and evaluated by Alexandra and Charlotte, who contributed their own thoughts as well.
All the recipes are healthy and balanced and although the book is fun, there is also a serious side. Margaret feels strongly about family, children and the concept of children’s food. Because society’s pressures make families time-poor, she believes that this is leading to the evolution of two mealtimes – children’s and adults’ – and the development of bland children’s food. We are in danger of losing the socialisation that occurs at the dinner table, she says, and children have little understanding of ingredients.
When families eat out at a restaurant, she says, parents should encourage children to choose meals from the adult menu, because children’s menus usually feature dumbed-down dishes.
Most of all, though, Margaret hopes that the book will teach children basic cooking skills, educate them about ingredients and fuel their enthusiasm for good food.
Has the book worked with Margaret’s children? Recently, Alexandra and Charlotte wanted to bake food for their lunch boxes, and Alexandra requested dhal as her special-treat dinner following an exam. The answer, then, appears to be yes.
FILO APPLE PIE
800-900g eating apples
40g butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 lemon
2 tbsp raisins (optional)
2 tbsp butter
4-5 sheets filo pastry
to serve: cream, plain yoghurt or vanilla
ice-cream
Heat the oven to 180?C. Peel the apples, cut them into quarters, cut out the cores, then chop the quarters into pieces. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir in the apple and sugar. Cover with the lid and cook over a gentle heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. You don’t have to add any water because once the apple begins to cook it releases its own juice. When the apple is soft, remove the saucepan from the heat. Taste to see if it is sweet enough and stir in a little more sugar if needed. Grate some lemon rind from about half the lemon and stir into the apple. Stir in the raisins if using. Pour the apple into an ovenproof dish and spread out.
Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter gently, either in a small saucepan or in a bowl in the microwave. Remove the filo sheets from their packet and spread them out in a flat pile. (Immediately re-wrap the rest of the filo pastry so that it won’t dry out.) Brush one side of the top sheet of pastry with melted butter. Scrunch up the pastry as if you were loosely screwing up paper and place it buttery-side up on top of the apple. Repeat this process 3-4 times with the remaining pastry sheets. The top of the apple should be completely covered with scrunched-up pastry.
Put the dish on an oven tray in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp. Serve warm, with cream, vanilla ice-cream or yoghurt.
RISI E BISI IS ITALIAN for “rice and peas”. Pumpkin can be substituted for the peas, and it would then be called “risi e zucca”. Use a quarter of a medium-sized pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes.
RISI E BISI
500g frozen peas
1 onion
2 rashers bacon (optional)
4 tbsp butter
1.5 litres chicken or vegetable stock
400g Italian risotto rice (arborio)
salt and black pepper
60g freshly grated parmesan cheese
fresh parsley, 2 tbsp when chopped
Spread the frozen peas out on the plate and leave to thaw. Chop the onion finely. Chop the bacon into 1cm square pieces, if using. Use kitchen scissors if it is easier. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the onion and bacon, then gently fry until the onion is soft and golden, stirring occasionally. Add the stock to the saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Tip the rice into the stock, add ½ teaspoon of salt, cover with a lid, and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally during the cooking.
While the rice is cooking, grate the parmesan and chop the parsley. When the rice is cooked but still firm to bite, stir in the peas, then cover and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the parmesan, parsley and some black pepper. Replace the lid and let the rice rest for about 4 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if you like. Serve in soup bowls.