Baby's Fish Porridge

Ha, I’m so far behind my posting…. Lyanne’s almost 17 months now. Althought she still eats porridge now, but it's no longer a daily affair because she's got her molars now and eating a lot of other stuff.

This is how I do my baby’s fish porridge. And to take away the fishiness, I use spring onions. It adds a lovely touch of sweetness and specks of green in the porridge. I want my children to eat spring onions. I’ve seen so many kids picking that out when they eat out. I don’t want my kids to be like that. You can add carrots of course, but I don’t feed carrots daily to my kids. And I always add sesame oil in fish porridge, masks any fishy smell. *Kitchen Tip*

Kitchen Tip: Use a timer to boil porridge with a slow cooker. This way, there’s no worry of forgetting to switch off that switch when you might be busy with baby. She might be crying or waiting for you to hug her.. and there are times when we really cannot get away for even a while. A kitchen timer really comes in handy.

I do measure my rice with a measurement spoon and use a measuring cup with my water, so that I get precise results each time.
This recipe yields 1 rice bowl of porridge, suitable for 1 feeding of a 9 month old child, Well, this is how much my kids eat at 9 months.

2Tbsp rice
350ml water
30gm fish flesh, preferably, garoupa, threadfin or Spanish mackerel. Please don’t use dory.
1 sprig green onion, separated into white and green parts, finely sliced
¼ tsp sesame oil, good source Omega 6 and masks the fishy smell too.
¼ tsp salt, optional, but I do put a bit. If you like to use ikan bilis in your baby food, they contain salt too.

If you want to increase the rice
3 tbsp, 500ml water, 2 hours
4 Tbsp rice, 600ml water, 2 hours
6 tbsp rice, 750ml water, 2 hours 15 minutes

1. Turn on slow cooker on high. Wash the rice and put in slow cooker. Add in white parts of spring onion too.

2. Boil water and fish. Pour into slow cooker. Put salt if using.

3. Put timer on for 1 hour 45 minutes.

4. When porridge is almost done, put in green parts of spring onion and take out the fish and leave to cool.

5. *Kitchen tip*
Flake fish with fingers, yes, fingers, not a fork. So that you can feel whether there are bones in the fish. You won’t want to choke your child. Feel the fish flakes thoroughly before adding back into porridge.

6. Leave porridge to cool down slightly to warm before feeding your child.

*The fish looks greyish because it's just out from the freezer, it's frost.

Variations that I find to be super yummy, even for an adult 
Chicken and Apple
Cabbage and Pork Loin/chicken
Carrots, Tomato, Onion and chicken/pork loin
Pumpkin and Chicken
Amaranth and fish
Tofu, chicken and wolfberries
Spinach, tofu and fish

I’m not the kind of person that will throw in anything to make porridge. If I feel it’s yucky and won’t eat it, I won’t feed it to my child. And some say, I’m raising picky eaters that only know how to eat good food cos they have me as their mother 

Haha, I won’t know that until much later.