Cooking to Suite all Taste Buds: even the kids!
Guest post by Dominique Goh
Cooking for the family isn’t a really easy task as it seems. There are a lot of things to consider besides just the nutritional balance and availability of ingredient for the dishes made. Deciding what to cook can be a difficult decision to make especially when you have to cater for both the kids and adults within the family. It would be extremely exhausting if one has to prepare separate meals for the baby, kids and adults on a daily basis. Wouldn’t it be a better option if one could just cook one meal and everyone young and old can enjoy it and fill their tummies at the same time. It’s possible to do that with a minimal amount of time spent in the kitchen.
Being a mom of three I’m pressed for time every evening to ensure that dinner is prepared before the boys and hubby return back home from school and work. I only have the maximum 1.5hr-2hrs to prepare the food after completing the other household chores and attending to an extremely active and demanding 16 month old girl.
Today I’m sharing with you one 3 course meal which I prepare for our family of five on a regular basis. It only takes about one hour to cook including time taken for preparation and marinating. The same ingredients can be used different dishes which can be created at the same time.
The three dishes are – Rice with breaded chicken and tempura brinjal, chawamushi and agedashi tofu.
Ingredients
- Breadcrumbs
- Tempura Mix
- Mirin
- Fish stock (1 packet)
- Pepper
- Light soya sauce & Dark soya sauce
- Brinjal
- chicken breasts
- sliced mushrooms
- one block of tofu
- eggs ( 1 used for the tempura mix, 1 for the breadcrumb mix and 4 for the chawamushi)
- 400g of water
Instructions
(Preparing items to marinate)
- Slice up the brinjal and put them in a bowl. Add in a dash of light soya sauce, dark soya sauce and pepper. Mix them up till all the brinjal are coated evenly and leave to marinate for about 15 minutes.
- Marinate the chicken breast in light sauce and pepper for about 15 minutes. After it has been marinate break an egg and mix in it before coating the chicken in breadcrumb mix.
Chawamushi
- In a medium bowl, whisk 4 eggs gently while slowly pouring in the fish stock, dash of mirin, and soy sauce with 400g of water . Divide the mushroom and chicken evenly between 4 cups . Pour the egg mixture into each cup until filled.
- Steam the cups in a steamer or in a boiler for about 12- 15 minutes till egg is firm but soft and silky like tofu
Te
mpura Brinjal , Agedashi Tofu and Breaded Chicken
1. Cut the tofu into small pieces. Bloat each with paper towels.
2. Coat the marinate brinjal and tofu with the tempura mix in separate bowls.
3. Heat up a pan with oil and fry the breadcrumb chicken, tofu and brinjal.
4. Drain the extra oil by setting the deep fried items on kitchen paper towel after frying.
Create the sauce for the Agedashi Tofu by following these instructions.
Tentsuyu Sauce:
3/4 cup (185 ml) of Japanese fish stock
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
3/4 tablespoon sugar
Mix all the ingredients together and pour the sauce over the cooked Agedashi tofu.
My kids really love this tasty meal. The 16 month old loves eating chawamushi and tofu. I dice up the breaded chicken and tempura brinjal for her so she too gets to try it. Her elder brothers who are 5 and 7 year old get their tempura brinjal and breaded chicken cut up into smaller pieces while for adults we have the food “standard size”.
Are you tempted to try making this for the family?
Dominique Goh, Singaporean elementary school teacher, freelance writer and mom to three. She blogs regularly about her family and parenting at Dominique’s Desk
