Hi there, I'm Sandra. I'm a community chef working with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
and today we are going to be cooking a lovely dish from Fun First Foods and we are going to
be cooking with fish, so it's a fish pie. Okay. So, all you need for this recipe is we have
about 100 grams of salmon around six dessert spoonful’s of full fat cow's milk, two potatoes
and I’m going to be showing you a different variation where we're going to be using tinned
mackerel instead which is a little bit quicker and it's something you can just have in your
store cupboard. So you can use frozen fish, fresh fish or, as i said, some tinned fish, as well.
So, fish is really good for your baby. It's got a good source of protein in it.
It's also, oily fish has got omega-3, which is great for your memory as you're growing up
and also can protect you from coronary heart disease as well, when you're older. Okay, so it's
really important that you wash your hands before you start and just make sure that everything is
clean round about you, your utensils are clean and also when you're feeding your baby, give their
hands a little bit of a wash and just clean their high chair. Now, fish is quite a strong flavour,
so it might take a few times for your baby to get used to that. It can take up to maybe 10 times
it’s thought just for a baby to get used to a new taste. So, it's worthwhile just persevering and
just trying it a few times, because if they can take to this a strong flavour early on in life,
they're more likely to eat it when they are older. There is a few fish that you should avoid such as
shark, swordfish and marlin, just because it has quite a lot of mercury in it and it can be
dangerous and that's right up to the age of 16 you want to avoid those fish. Okay, so avoiding:
shark, swordfish and marlin. Okay, if you’re using tinned fish - just make sure that it's
either in oil or in water and you're avoiding brine because brine’s got a lot of salt in it.
So, the most important take-home message is that you're not adding any salt or any sugar,
or any honey to your baby's foods. So, salt is not good for your baby’s kidneys and you know,
salt is in things like, gravies and stock cubes, so you want to be avoiding anything like that.
Sugar isn't good for your baby's teeth coming in, so you want to avoid putting that in the food and
honey has a dangerous bacterium in it, so you want to avoid that before the age of one years old.
Okay, so let's get started cooking. Okay so, here we have our salmon fillet. Now this one's not got
skin on it. We're not giving fish skin to baby. If you buy salmon that has got skin in it, we can
cook that and take this the skin off afterward - it's easier to peel it off when it's cooked.
Okay but mine is skinless. So, what I'm going to do is, I'm going to place the salmon
into my pot and I'm going to cover it with some full fat cow's milk.
So, just enough milk just to cover the salmon.
Now, it's important to use full fat cow's milk because your baby needs
the calories. So, you can add full fat cow's milk into your baby's meals from
six months. Baby’s just not to drink the milk because they still need their
breast or their formula milk. That's where they're getting their main source of nutrition from.
Okay, so I'm just going to put my cooker on and we're just going to bring that up to a simmer.
Okay, so I think this is my fish ready but I'm just going to test it
by taking a little bit out the pot.
You want your fish just to be flaky so that it's cooked, just so that it breaks up nice and easily.
Okay so, that's nicely cooked. So, what I'm going to do, let me put that back in,
is I'm just going to set this aside. Now, remember we're using the milk that the fish is cooked in,
to add to the potato mash, so you want to reserve the milk and we'll just put this
aside and now we'll go on to our potatoes. Okay, so here we have our two potatoes. So,
it's important that you get them a good scrub and then we're just going to peel
the skin off you can get your peeler and just take the skin off the potatoes.
So, next we're just going to quarter the potatoes.
And I have a pot of water here and I’m just going to place the potatoes in to water.
I’m going to put my cooker on and I’m going to bring this up to the boil.
Okay, so our potatoes are now ready. I’m just draining them
and I’m just going to add these now back into the pot and we're going to use the full fat cow's
milk that we cooked the fish in and we're going to add a few splashes of that to the potatoes.
I’m going to take my potato masher, I’m just going to mash these potatoes up.
Okay, so that's our potatoes now ready.
Okay, so here we have our poached fish which is ready and we have our mashed potatoes. So,
remember that this is enough for three portions, this recipe. So, we're going
to serve this now. So, I’m just going to take a little bit of this fish, put it on my plate.
Now, when it comes to portion sizes, when you're just introducing foods to your baby, you know, one
baby might just eat a small amount to begin with and another baby might eat whole plateful. So,
don't worry too much about how much your baby is eating to begin with. So, as you can see,
I’m just flaking this with a fork so, I’m just breaking up the fish. Okay, just flake it into
little manageable bits for your baby. Okay. And then, I’m just going to add in some potato.
Okay, so we have some serving suggestions here. So, it's a good opportunity just to add in some
colour and some vegetables. So, we have some cooked peas and some cooked broccoli here.
And, if you are using the peas, just make sure that you mash them,
just to break that roundness up - so, give them a little bit of a mash on the plate. So,
it's good to add different textures to your meals so that your baby is
exploring the different textures but also exploring different colours as well.
Okay, so that is our poached salmon and potatoes ready, ready to serve.
Now, we're going to look at how we would do the same but with tinned mackerel. Okay,
so let's look at an easy, super quick dish that you can put together,
which is very like the salmon that we just cooked. So, instead of using fresh or frozen salmon,
you can use tinned fish as well. Just remember that you want it to be in either oil or in
water, spring water, just not the brine or in any of these tomato sauces, like I mentioned earlier.
Okay, so we're just going to open up the tin. This is something you can have in your store cupboard
and it's a cheaper alternative as well. I’m just going to open up this tin
and we're just going to put it all into a bowl. And remember, if you're storing it in the fridge,
just to take it out of the tin and to store it in the bowl, with maybe a bit of cling film over it.
Okay again, like what we'd done with the salmon, we're just flaking or breaking up the fish.
Okay, so I’m just going to set that to one side
and get your little baby plate and we're going to add in some potatoes.
Now, this is a great opportunity to use up any potatoes that you've maybe cooked the day before,
maybe you've cooked them for the family - just make sure they've not got any added salt in them.
Or you can make up a fresh batch. I’m just going to add in some potatoes onto the plate.
Again, not worrying too much about portion sizes
at this point because your baby might just have a little bit.
Look at that - beautiful. Okay, and just make sure it's nice and well flaked. I’m just breaking it
up with the fork - super quick, super easy and again, you can add in your peas - just make sure
you mash them and you have your cooked broccoli or any soft vegetable that you wish to add.
And that is our tinned fish and potatoes - super easy, super quick and that's it ready to go.
Okay, so here we have our two dishes, side by side. So, we have our fresh salmon served with
potatoes and then, our super quick tinned fish alternative. So, as you can see there's lovely
texture in there. Now, if I compare that to a jar that you buy from a supermarket, already made,
just have that here, and as you can compare that with the texture,
this really does not have any texture at all in it, okay. There's no lumps or bumps in that
at all. Now, this jar is advertised from seven months and from seven months, you really would
be wanting some more lumps and bumps in it than that. So, as you can see, if you make it yourself
you're going to get the texture. It's also going to look a lot nicer too, lovely colours in that.
Fish wise, here we have 100% fish and in this one, I think there's probably maybe about 10%, it
says there's 10% on the jar, so not much fish in this, compared to your real fish that is here.
Okay, cost-wise, this actually costs three times more
than what we have here. And if you think with a little amount of fish that's actually in it,
you're getting so much more value for your money and you know you can freshly prepare this and
especially, this one's super, super easy to make. Now, if you're not a fish lover and if you don't
like fish, you don't like the smell of fish, which a lot of people don't,
it's still good to promote it to your baby - it's still good to give fish to your baby. So,
maybe if you're not wanting to cook the fish, you try your baby with the tinned/the canned version
of the fish and it's just, you know, you're not having to cook out and it's so much easier to put
together, okay. So, you have different options but it's really good to promote the fish - it's full
of benefits - oily fish has got lots of omega-3 in it and it's a really good source of protein.
So, the recipe for the salmon and the potato is in the Fun First Foods booklet - so give it a try!