Easy baby food introduction

 I am starting this blog to describe how to cook easy baby food cheaply, with (mostly) everyday ingredients. I hope that this helps other parents who are looking for simple recipes that can be done even with minimal cooking skills

Cooking tools

Even with simple cooking, a few tools will be needed. In this case, these are:

• A baby food steamer. This can be a simple steamer, such as the one I am using - Orzbow Baby Food Maker below (for approx. USD 50). Or you can spring for a deluxe one such as ThermoMix. At the end of the day, all it needs to do is steam the food for 20 minutes and puree it.

• Cooking knives. In general with cooking, you would want one large knife and one small knife, both reasonably sharp.
• A cutting board. This should be self-explanatory...
• A baby food container. This is so you can make more than one portion (which is very difficult), serve one and freeze the rest.

• A rice cooker. This may be a regional preference, but I cook rice porridge / congee and mix it with the solid at about 1:1 (sometimes more, sometimes less). This stretches the food, and improves the taste in my case (as baby likes rice).
• A blender. I use a simple hand blender, in cases where I am not using the baby food maker to blend, or where the blender it comes with is not strong enough (one cannot expect too much for USD 50).

General ingredients

In general, my recipes will use some standard ingredients:

• Spices: Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary, Dill, Paprika, Pepper
• Garlic (just straight garlic - no powder, concentrate or pre-cut/preserved)
• Olive oil, butter or margarine (occasionally)
• Rice
• Vegetables: Generally sweet potato, potato, carrot, or capsicum
• Protein: Pork, chicken, or tuna

Making rice porridge

For anyone not familiar with this, this is essentially rice cooked with extra water until the rice becomes very soft. So far, I have made out three methods:

1. With the rice cooker
1. Use 1/2 measuring cup of rice
2. Rinse the rice 2-3x (add water, mix with your hand, then pour the water out carefully)
3. Add 3 measuring cups of water
4. Put rice cooker in the "congee" program (in my case, this is 1h 10m)
2. With a pot
1. Same as in one, just use a covered pot and cook on low flame (just enough to lightly boil) for about 1h
3. Using leftover cooked rice (cooking 1 portion)
1. Use 1-2 tablespoons of cooked rice
2. Add water until the rice is well covered (about 1cm)
3. Mix rice and water so the rice is not lumped
4. Boil for 10-20 minutes

Once cooked, I blend the rice using the hand blender. Once baby is older (has teeth), I plan to not blend the rice any more.