Ebi-kun is becoming quite the little chef, this week he cooked up some sautéed courgette and carrots to go with the baked chicken and potatoes I had in the oven. He used a recipe from Pretend Soup but we only had one courgette so I asked him to find something else to go with it, he decided on carrot.
At first he was a bit reluctant to stray from the recipe so we discussed about it and talked about how new recipes are discovered. He loves trying new foods and combining foods to find out if it is a 'good combination or not'. As he was trying to decide what to use he went through the fruit and veg draw and had a think about how the particular veg would react if sautéed. He thought tomatoes would split and make a mess, avocado would be horrible hot etc. So carrot it was and they were good.
Often, kids cookbooks and websites focus on kids cooking sweet dishes such as cookies and cake, which is great and fun but cooking a main meal can also be fun and more useful too. Following a recipe is an important skill but thinking outside the box and using your imagination is equally important. Living in Japan, many of my tradition or western style dishes are impossible to make following the recipe, improvisation and imagination is definitely needed!
I am secretly hoping that by the time he leaves home he will have several main dishes that he can easily whip up to impress the girls with. Does your little chef have a favorite dish to make?
I like this! I agree about the cookbooks, I just let him look at my cookbooks. My son's best dish is tamagoyaki, I don't know if it's his favourite to cook or not though!
ReplyDeleteHow clever of him to choose a change to the recipe that way. This sounds yummy.