I shan't patronise you with a recipe for crepes or pancakes (although if you are looking for a recipe you could start at the BBC), in fact, I am a bit embarrassed to admit that our crepe mix came from a packet we picked up at Masterchef Live!!! No, this blog post is more about introducing a toddler to a frying pan and to cooking on the hob; something I have been plucking up courage to do with Lara for some weeks now.
Quite understandably, most children's cookery recipes suggest that the responsible adult takes charge of most of the actual 'cooking'. For this reason, children's cookery tends to be centred around baking - cookery that involves quite some prep, but very little interactive cooking. For me, food is about a lot more than cake so I want to introduce Lara to the cooking part as well as the prep.
You don't introduce a preschooler to cooking on the hob without some trepidation. It requires confidence, co-ordination and a second pair of eyes (hence Mr. B. lurking in today's photos). We chose to cook pancakes in Lara's brand new frying pan all of her own - it is a Tefal Sensorielle omlette pan which was sent just for her to review - it has an astonishingly strong non-stick coating and a high-resistance base so it is great for low-fat cookery without butter or oil and is ideal for standing up to the test of a toddler with a pallete knife.
Not only did Lara love devouring the pancakes that she had made with her own hands, but I came away from the experience with a great feeling that Lara had learned some respect for the heat and the flame of the hob; she learned to watch for the red spot in the middle of her pan to indicate that it was hot enough to cook, and learned to slip the pallet knife around the pancake in order to losen the edges. Lara managed to get up close to her food being cooked and is taking the first steps in learning the art of cookery.
Quite understandably, most children's cookery recipes suggest that the responsible adult takes charge of most of the actual 'cooking'. For this reason, children's cookery tends to be centred around baking - cookery that involves quite some prep, but very little interactive cooking. For me, food is about a lot more than cake so I want to introduce Lara to the cooking part as well as the prep.
You don't introduce a preschooler to cooking on the hob without some trepidation. It requires confidence, co-ordination and a second pair of eyes (hence Mr. B. lurking in today's photos). We chose to cook pancakes in Lara's brand new frying pan all of her own - it is a Tefal Sensorielle omlette pan which was sent just for her to review - it has an astonishingly strong non-stick coating and a high-resistance base so it is great for low-fat cookery without butter or oil and is ideal for standing up to the test of a toddler with a pallete knife.
Not only did Lara love devouring the pancakes that she had made with her own hands, but I came away from the experience with a great feeling that Lara had learned some respect for the heat and the flame of the hob; she learned to watch for the red spot in the middle of her pan to indicate that it was hot enough to cook, and learned to slip the pallet knife around the pancake in order to losen the edges. Lara managed to get up close to her food being cooked and is taking the first steps in learning the art of cookery.
