Baby Food - Chinese congee

[FTMummy]

Hi all - I have a 9 month old and have been feeding him all kinds of homemade baby food. Besides the foods found in many of the books tilted towards a western diet, does anyone have recipe suggestions for asian-style congee that's suited for babies? I've tried the following congee conbinations chicken/carrots, fish/kale, and beef/sweet potatoes but have run out of ideas. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[loupou]

Miced pork and very finely cut up Shanghai cabbage.

Miced pork and very finely cut up veggie of your choice.

Same with minced chicken.

[newbies]

You can also use dried scallop with broccoli. May be you want to try out some of these. They sure are taste good besides the nutrition aspect. http://www.baybsupplies.net/babyrecipes.htm

[barbwong_130]

My daughter liked yam in her congee best.
Barb

[Wee Kean]

I have tried putting dried anchovies, lean pork, fish, chicken, beef, pumpkins, butternut squash, carrot, potatoes, winter melon, choy sum, spinach, cauliflower, tofu, tomato, egg yolk (egg white after one year old), green peas, salmon, cheese and zucchini in the congee. In my Chinese baby food cook book, it suggests to put honey bean, sweet corn, apple, hairy gourd, papaya, dried lily and sweetened dates. I haven't try it yet.

[mambo]

Wee Kean,
where did you get your cookbook? Is it all in Chinese? (as I can't read chinese) I would like to know if there is a Chinese Baby Food cook book in English.

[Valencia]

Wee Kean,

Your cookbook has great ideas for congee. However, be careful if you put sweented dates in your congee. There are many kinds of dates, such as black dates and red dates. Red dates are not suitable for children or babies, since they are too nutritious and hot, just like ginseng and pak fung yuen. I once put red dates in soup and gave it to my several months old baby and I found her faeces were red, I was afraid it was blood. Many adults including me found red dates too hot (yit hei) for us.

[FTMummy]

Thanks for all these suggestions - I'll certainly try many of them. Sometimes I'm in the kitchen trying to dream up some congee ideas and well, I've discovered that I'm not very imaginative as I find myself trying to balance between cooking up 'safe foods' and attempting to be martha stewart for baby food. =)

Following from Mambo's question to Wee Kean, I'd also like to ask as well if your baby chinese cookbook is in chinese or is it in english? Cheers,