Kids Dish

I use ginger in recipes pretty regularly because I love its hot, tangy flavor. I use it primarily in Asian dishes like rice and stir fries and paired with carrots. But ginger, both in its sweeter ground form and fresh is a deliciously subtle addition to many baked goods.

With Christmas coming I know many people are in the middle of holiday baking. Here are two recipes for Ginger Cookies, one using fresh ginger and one using ground and crystallized. Because the dough in both recipes has to be refrigerated these are great to make ahead. You can freeze the dough and thaw in the refrigerator to use or refrigerate for up to three days before baking. Both recipes also store well so you can bake ahead and serve a few days later.

I know that the following recipe is for cookies, not health food, but if your little one likes ginger cookies and needs iron you can use blackstrap molasses. Just add an extra tablespoon or two of sugar.

Fresh Ginger Cookies

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and then roll them in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until edges start to brown, about 15 minutes. Centers will be slightly soft. Let stand on cookie sheets 1 minute and remove to racks to cool completely.

For the Ginger Spice cookies you can substitute butter for some or all of the shortening. I’d recommend half and half, especially now that they make and sell trans-fat free shortening, but using all butter works too. I love crystallized ginger and the little ginger bits add a lot of sweet, spicy taste to these cookies, but if you’re not a fan you can omit it and add a bit more of the ground ginger.

Ginger Spice Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses

Here’s a third recipe from the Elementary Chef.

While the stir fry in peanut sauce did not go over well with Sam who licked it, gave me a dirty look and threw it on the floor, last night’s coconut rice was a huge success and really easy to make. I like making rice because even though it takes a while to cook (half an hour can be an eternity with a fussy, demanding toddler) you can make the rest of your meal in the time it takes for the rice to absorb the liquid. (Like a broccoli stir fry with coconut peanut sauce that I plan on eating for dinner again tonight because even though Sam hated it, I thought it was fantastic.) Sam loved the coconut rice. And I love that he loved it. I didn’t love cleaning up about a kajillion little grains of rice off of his clothes, his booster seat and the floor, but it’s the price one has to pay for a kid who refuses to eat unless he’s feeding himself.

Coconut Rice

1 cup jasmine rice
1 cup coconut milk (unsweetened)
1 cup water
a few slivers of sliced fresh ginger*
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted (optional)

Add ingredients to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered until liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Try not to mess with it. Rice does better when you don’t take off the lid and stir. Toast the coconut in a dry pan for 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat shaking often, until the coconut turns golden brown. Stir the toasted coconut into the finished rice.

*I know that fresh ginger isn’t an ingredient most people have around. It’s sort of frustrating in the same way tomato paste is- most recipes only call for a small amount and then you don’t know what to do with the rest. So here’s a tip. Ginger comes in an irregularly shaped root. Try to get the smoothest, crispest root you can find. When you get it home, peel the whole root and cut it into one inch chunks. Put it in a resealable freezer bag, pop it in the freezer, and when a recipe calls for a tablespoon of minced ginger, or a few slivers of sliced like the rice recipe, it will be ready to go.

recipe, coconut rice, ginger

It’s supposed to be warm out. It is most definitely not. Weather.com is reporting 54 degrees at almost noon today. That kind of weather calls for hearty dishes. With Polish and German relatives, hearty dishes has come to mean sausages and sauerkraut - and the girls love it!

If you’re not a big fan of sauerkraut, don’t click away just yet. You’ve probably had sauerkraut that was overprocessed or too salty. That’s what happened to me. I couldn’t stand the idea of it before I met my husband. And then I had good sauerkraut. Yum! What a difference! Apparently (and who knew?) the USDA regulations for preservation/processing have resulted in the addition of a lot more salt than is traditionally used.

So, you have a couple of options:

1. Buy good sauerkraut and rinse before using.
2. Make your own.

Sauerkraut

1 large head of cabbage (about 3 pounds)
3 T coarse salt

Remove core from cabbage. With a hand grater or food processor, slice cabbage as thinly as possible. Combine in large bowl with salt.

Transfer to a large glass or ceramic container (ceramic is traditional). Liquid will come out of the cabbage as you tap down by hand. Cover with a damp towel touching cabbage and top with something to weigh it down. Cover again with a layer of plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to ferment. Check after 2 days, scraping anything off of the top. Repack and check every 3 days. The flavor will get better as the saeurkraut ferments. After 2 weeks, give it a try. After 3 weeks, you should eat, refrigerate or can the sauerkraut.

Now, what to do with it?

Reuben sandwiches (yum).

Or try Kielbasa and Sauerkraut.

1 1/2 lbs kielbasa, sliced 1/2 inch thick
3 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 1/4 c water or other liquid (I use beer)
30 oz prepared sauerkraut, rinsed and drained or 4 cups homemade sauerkraut
2 tsp dried dill

Now, I’m a huge fan of the crock pot. So, I would make this in a crock pot. If you prefer to cook it on the stove top, use a large pan (a Dutch oven would work) but add more liquid, as necessary.

Here are the easy instructions! Throw everything in the crock pot and walk away. Really. I’d let it cook on low for about 2 hours.

If you’re looking for some more great recipes that incorporate sauerkraut, check out this site.

sauerkraut, dill, kielbasa

According to an old wives’ tale, a little dill water “destroyeth the hiccups.”

Of course, take that with a grain of salt (ha!) because in medieval times, it was also used for love potions, casting spells and protection against witchcraft. Additionally, carrying a bag of dried dill over the heart was considered protection against hexes.

So, hexes, hiccups… Kind of all purpose, no?

dill, hex, witchcraft, hiccups

Of all of the foods that incorporate dill, pickles are probably the most famous. Kids love pickles. And as much as they love eating them, they’ll love making them. Trust me, some of my fondest memories as a kid involve “putting up” pickles and other veggies with my mother in summer.

There are a number of “jobs” that go into making the pickles - use caution when delegating to children since the jars can get really hot. Kids can count out garlic cloves, peppercorns and dill sprigs. They can wash cucumbers and, if old enough, wash out the canning jars prior to use. Mom used to let me label the pickles when they cooled, which was a great job.

Enjoy your pickles.

Dill Pickles

4 lbs of pickling cucumbers (use pickling cucumbers between 3 and 4 inches long, not regular ones and not coated with wax)
10-15 cloves garlic
1/4 c. pickling or canning salt (uniodized)
3 c. water
2-1/4 c. vinegar (white or cider vinegar, at least 5% acidity)
fresh sprigs of dill
black peppercorns

Wash and halve cucumbers.
Combine garlic, salt, water and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to boil, stirring occasionally until salt is completely dissolved. Remove from heat. Using a strainer, fill brine into warmed pickling jars (use proper canning jars with no cracks or chips - Mom used Ball or Mason jars). Pack cucumbers into jars, exercising care. Add a few sprigs of dill and a few fresh peppercorns to each jar. Top up with the remaining brine, leaving about a half an inch from the top. Cover with canning lids and process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

If you’re in a hurry, try my mom’s “instant pickle” recipe:

Fill a ceramic bowl with apple cider vinegar to just over half full. Add slices of cucumbers to the vinegar. Season with salt, pepper or other herbs (like dill!) to taste. Voila! Instant pickles! Terrific for summer. They’re wonderfully quick and refreshing.

dill, pickles, cucumbers, preserves

(amazing photo from gardenguides.com)

It’s Easy as A-B-C Monday.

And I know what you’re thinking… dill? But there is a method behind my madness. I’ve been struggling for days to come up with a kid-friendly ingredient that starts with “d”. And I kept coming back to dill. It just didn’t seem “glamorous” enough to be its own ingredient at first. Then it dawned on me: kids just don’t get exposed to herbs and spices early on, and they certainly should.

Herbs and spices are great to introduce to children for a lot of reasons. A super reason is the introduction of new flavors. Often, kids’ food isn’t actually flavored. It’s just created and then usually salted. Salt, while it has its place, actually masks a lot of the good in food. Sometimes, just a dash of spice or a sprinkle of herbs adds wonderful pizazz to a dish, and eliminates the need (or desire) for something “extra” like salt or sugar.

Another reason is that herbs are a really good way to teach children about the relationship between the food that they eat and where it comes from. Many herbs are wonderfully easy to grow - and dill is no exception. Growing herbs from seed (or plants) also requires little in the way of space, so you can create an herb garden outdoors in your spacious suburban yard or in your tiny city flat. Try Burpee.com for wonderful, inexpensive seeds or consider buying a plant from bluestoneperennials.com. There are many others (you can also check out your local plant nursery - these just happen to be some of my favorites). An added bonus - in addition to usually saving money by growing your own herbs, I find that kids are more likely to try something new that they grew themselves.

Stop by throughout the week for recipes featuring dill. But certainly don’t feel limited. Consider this your license to try new herbs and spices a pinch at a time!

dill, herbs, spices