SALMOREJO

This is a very typical soup from the south of Spain. It is a bit like a thick gazpacho, except that the gazpacho is done with cucumbers while in the salmorejo there is nothing but tomatoes. My children eat this as a cold soup in the summer but they also like it on top of crusty bread, preferably with a bit of ham on top.
You need:
- 1 kg tomatoes (as red and ripe as possible)
- 200 gr stale bread
- 200 ml olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic
- salt
- red wine vinegar

Cut the tomatoes in quarters. Put them in a bowl with the bread, the olive oil and the peeled cloves of garlic. Mix it all well with your hands squeezing a bit the tomatoes. Cover the bowl with cling film and let it marinate for at least 3 hours. Then get rid of the cloves of garlic and blend all the other ingredients in a blender. Add salt and vinegar to taste. Serve with little bits of cured ham or with chopped boiled egg or just on its own.

The kids like helping with all of this and particularly enjoy squeezing the tomatoes and the bread. It is indeed a very satisfactory feeling.

FRENCH TOAST

We have had a bit of a break due to the school holiday but we are now back on track.
French toast is a favourite of my 6 years old son for breakfast. You need:
4 or 5 slices of stale bread
200 ml milk
1 egg
half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
butter
sugar
Beat the egg, milk and vanilla essence. Soak the bread slices in this mixture (do not let them soak for too long). Put a bit of butter on a pan over medium heat. When the butter is melted fry the soaked slices until they are golden (turning them so that they get golden on both sides). When you take them out sprinkle some sugar on top and serve. You can serve them with all sorts of fruit, but berries work particularly well here.

2 MINUTES MAYONNAISE SAUCE

All you need is:
a hand held blender and a tall beaker.
1 egg
200 ml sunflower oil (you can do it with olive oil but then it may taste a bit bitter)
1 tbspoon vinegar
a pinch of salt

Put the egg in the tall beaker. Add the oil. Cover the egg with the blender without moving the blender for 30 seconds. It really is important that you do not move the blender at all. You will see how a think ribbony mayonnaise starts appearing at the bottom of the beaker. Start moving the blender up really-really slowly. If you do it slowly enough the mayonnaise will never curd. When the blender is at the top of the beaker you can then move it up and down with no worries. Add the salt and vinegar and blend again (you can now do this fast) and job done.
You can add anything to mayonnaise: mustard, garlic, tomato ketchup, tabasco and orange juice for cocktail sauce, capers and cornichons for tartare sauce...
The kids can add the ingredients to the beaker but do not let them handle the blender or you will end up with lots of curd sauce...

PASTA WITH CHORIZO

This is a Spanish classic dish that comes from an Italian classic one. In fact when Spanish people say they will 'cook pasta' this is what they normally refer to. My grandma went as far as boiling the pasta in the tomato sauce itself - I thought my Italian friends would be horrified to hear this, but I have found out that in the old times this is how pasta was prepared in some parts of Italy.  Children love this dish, no mater the age.
You need:
 - dried pasta (preferably penne) (a handful and a half per person)
- plenty of water
-salt
- tomato sauce ( preferably home made - see recipe in sauces' section)
- grated cheese
- chorizo cut in cubes (around 30 gr per person)

Boil the pasta in the water (with salt) following the packet instructions and drain the water out of it. Mix it with the tomato sauce. Separately fry lightly the chorizo (without oil) for 2-3- minutes or alternatively put it in the highest setting of your microwave oven for 45 seconds. Discard the (considerable amount of) fat that oozes from the chorizo and mix it with the pasta. Add grated cheese on top.

LEMON CURD MUFFINS

Delicious for breakfast or tea. The lemon curd bubbles a bit out of the muffins and gives them a nice twist.
You need:
- 75 gr butter
- 250 gr self raising flour
- 60 gr sugar
- 25 gr ground almonds (if you do not have this at hand  replace it with 30 more gr of self raising flour)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 egg
- juice and grated zest  of a lemon
- 100 ml milk
- lemon curd

Mix the flour, ground almonds, bicarb, baking soda, lemon zest and sugar. Separately mix: the butter melted, the lemon juice, beatten egg and milk. Mix both mixtures and strt them lightly (ideally just with a fork). Spoon the mixture on muffin paper cases (you will get 11-12 out of these quantities) filling them to 1/3 of the case. Add a teaspoon of good ( shop bought) lemon curd on each of them. Then spoon the remainign mixture over the curd so that you (almost) fill the cases. Bake in a preheated 200 degrees oven for 15-20 minutes.
Like with any baking the kids love helping with these... and eating them afterwards.

JAM BISCUITS

Not very healthy, I know - but I had to redeem myself after the mushrooms fiasco...
This recipe comes from Usborne's Beginners Cookbook. One of my kids received this as a present once from one of my friends. The biscuits look and taste messy and homemade. And there is something really satisfactory about the jam bubbling  all over the biscuits while they are in the oven.

You need:
225gr self raising flour
100 butter
100 sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
Jam (peach, plum or strawberry)

Preheat the over at 200 degrees. Mix the flour and cold butter (cut into small cubes) and rub them with your fingers until they become like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar. Then add the beaten egg with the milk and stir until it becomes a ball of dough.  Make small balls with your hand (you will get 16 more or less) and put them over a floured baking sheet pressing them down so that they become like little burgers. Make an indentation with your fingers in ehe middle of each biscuit and put a little bit of jam on top. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. You need to let them rest on a wire rack for 5 minutes after your take them out of the oven so that they get hard and the jam sets.

The kids do most of this on their own but unless you supervise how they put the jam on the biscuits they will make a huge mess, so beware!

MUSHROOMS

Encouraged by the kids's determination so far to eat all they had cooked, I had a go at mushrooms. It was a failure all over: they hardly touched the mushrooms when they were raw; they thought they became even worse once they were hot and developed a darker colour; one of my sons tried just one tiny piece; the other said he wanted to vomit just by looking at them... I definitely need to do something sugary next...

Regardless  of my kids' taste these are really nice either on a piece of toast, or with a french omelet.

you need:
- 250 gr mushrooms  (sliced but not too thinly)
- 1 clove of garlic (crushed)
- 1 teaspoon of finelly chopped parsley
- 50 gr bacon ( cut in little cubes)
- 1 tbsp red vinegar
- olive oil (2 tbsp)
- salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil (medium heat). When the oil is hot, add the bacon, reduce the heat and wait until the bacon is golden ( 3-4 minutes). Increase the heat and immediately add the mushrooms, the crussed garlic, parsley and red vinegar. Wait for 5-7 minutes until the mushrooms are darker but develop a nice gloss,  add the salt and pepper (if you add the salt any earlier they will get too watery) and serve. You may want to add a little bit more olive oil on top (just a few drops) to make them even glossier.