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The oily marinades at will, the pizzas with all your hands, ice cream galore all summer long… It’s over! We reinvest in the kitchen, apron around our necks and stove in hand, determined to get back behind the stoves. Our goal: to raise the bar on the quality of our menus, and those of our children.
How to cook baby food?
Our cuisine can now be summed up in two words: balance and diet. Culinary challenges do not scare us and we have no shortage of ideas to concoct simple and complete menus for our child. What could be better, for example, than a grilled steak with boiled green beans? Ouch, this is where they stop us!
The matter is more subtle than it seems… Which is good for the line does not necessarily mean good for the health. The cooking method often makes all the difference and there are several to adapt according to the food you are cooking.
How to cook baby vegetables?
There is no doubt, cooking in water is very healthy. You can go there with your eyes closed, not an ounce of fat or harmful substance on the horizon. On the other hand, the immersion of food in water causes the leakage of vitamins and mineral salts. Nice, the homemade mash, except that all the nutrients screw up!
The right cooking in water for a perfect mash
Fortunately, there are ways to curb the great vitamin escape. First, we refrain from cutting the vegetables into small pieces before putting them on the fire. Thin slices lead to more exposed surfaces and therefore greater loss of nutrients.
Another tip: rather than peeling the vegetables, brush them! Because it is in the skin that the maximum number of vitamins is lodged. Then we limit the cooking time as much as possible. A word of advice: we wait for the boil to immerse our food and cover the container: the temperature will rise more quickly.
And above all, let’s not forget to collect the water at the end. The nutrients haven’t gone very far, they are splashing around quietly in the pan! Here is therefore material to make an excellent broth by optimizing the vitamin intake of our baby’s breakfast.
Food: all steamed!
To limit the loss of nutrients, steam is the best way to cook. With this process, the food is not in direct contact with the water and the cooking is at the same time excellent for health, diet (no addition of fat) and richer in nutrients than with any other mode. Cooking.
The right utensils for steaming
It’s decided, you opt for steaming. On the equipment side, you have the choice between devices that produce gentle steam, below 100 ° C (vitalizers, stainless steel pots with perforated baskets, electric steamers) and those who operate under pressure (pressure cooker, pressure cookers). The two categories are equal.
With gentle steam, the food is subjected to a lower temperature and must therefore cook longer. Pressure cook mode heats food further. The cooking time is therefore reduced, and the oxygen (source of degradation of vitamins and lipids) eliminated thanks to purge systems.
In the end, the result on baby’s plate is roughly the same. The original flavor of food is often so well preserved that theadding condiments is unnecessary. However, some herbs can be of nutritional interest (antioxidant properties) and delight the taste buds!
How to cook meat for a baby?
But tastefully speaking, some foods are less suitable than others for steaming, such as meat. However, do not overuse the oven, which is particularly fatal to vitamins because of the prolonged heating time. Like grilling, fried foods, and other cooking in a dry environment at very high temperature, baking also tends to alter proteins and fatty acids. You just have to see the blackened crusts forming on the surface of a roast beef: they serve as a den for the famous toxic compounds.
Steamed cooking is different from the oven, but just as delicious! And since foods simmer in their own juice, their benefits are better preserved.
Steaming: think of papillotes
Another idea for stewing: papillotes. You can whip up delicious fish, meats, vegetables, fruits, and compose a healthy and complete meal.
A word of advice: prefer baking paper to aluminum, suspected of having negative impacts on health, especially on the nervous system.