Book Review: Dinner with Kids and road test - Salmon Cannelloni

Can you always tell a book by it's cover?    

Dinner with kids is attractive.  The kind of cookbook you'd happily have sitting on your bench

It's practical.  It's bound in a plastic cover so you can USE it and not have to worry about the odd splatter here and there.

Well if you were judging this book by its' cover you'd be right.  It's got attractive recipes - good for the budget and enticing pictures.

It's practical -  It uses ingredients you don't have to buy at a specialty store or order in from overseas.  None of the recipes are 4 hour marathons either.

It's split into three sections:  stovetop, oven and desserts.

I've tabbed the following recipes:

- Parmesan crumbed veal with mixed vegetable mash

- Baked silverbeet, tuna and pecorino omelette

- Chipolata toad-in-the-hole

- Jaffa steamed pudding with chocolate sauce

- Pear, caramel and pecan sundaes

- Plum and polenta rolypoly

Pros:  Eatability, achievability, affordability.  There are pictures, there are step-by-steps that work.  A good variety of food.

Cons: If anything, it's just lacking maybe a slowcooker focus, which I think many families use these days.

Price:  $29.95

Release date:  April 2010

ISBN: 9781741964424

 RECIPE ROAD TEST- SALMON CANNELLONI

This was such an easy recipe, surprisingly so, and even though it looks like there's a lot of steps, it just comes together really easily. There was not A CRUMB left at the end.  I would personally make a few changes to suit my tastes by only using red salmon (we used pink, but I think it needs red) and using a few spring onions in the filling, and a bit more pepper.  

Ingredients:

60g butter

1/4 cup plain flour

3 1/2 cups milk

125g ricotta cheese

415g tin salmon, drained, bones and skin removed (I didn't do that, oops!)

1 tablespoon chopped dill, plus extra to garnish

1 small handful parsley, chopped

10 dried instant canneloni tubes (I didn't have any so I made my own pasta)

2/3 cup grated tasty cheese

Method:

In a saucepan, melt butter over a medium heat, and with your milk on hand, add the flour, whisk quickly and add some of the milk, 3/4 cup at a time, and stir until you have a thick sauce, then top up with more milk, stir until it becomes thick and repeat until all your milk is mixed in.  Take off the heat and set aside.

In another bowl, flake your salmon, add the dill and then stir through 1 cup of the milk sauce through.

Then add the ricotta, and stir well to combine.

With a piping bag or your fingers, stuff the cannelloni shells, or if you like to make your own pasta (or you buy the new pre-made cannelloni sheets on the market) make a sausage of filling on top of your pasta, and roll it up, cut into lengths to fit your baking tray.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees c.

Place your tubes/cannelloni in your baking tray, top up with remaining milk sauce.

Lastly top with cheese, and bake in oven for 30-35 minutes.

Serve with salad or vegetables!  Yummy!

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