Cooking with Toddlers: Braised Fennel and Mandarinquats

The other day as Fig, Cedar ( our newest sous chef; aged 3 months)  and I were doing a bit of grocery shopping we stumbled upon a Mandarinquat. Mandarinquats, as the name suggests, are a Mandarin and Kumquat hybrid. And since I’m a sucker for over-priced produce with fancy names I bought as many as would fit in a produce bag and hauled it home.

Fig loves fennel and will eat it raw but he’s especially keen on braised fennel. So we decided to do our usual braised fennel dish but with the lovely addition of our new citrus friends.

Since both the fennel and the mandarinquats are a bit tough to cut I pre-chopped everything for Fig so it was a bit easier for him to handle. Of course, he did a little dicing and slicing but mostly shoved everything in his mouth as fast as he could.

Ingredients:

• 1 fennel bulb
• 3 mandarinquats (kumquats will also work if you can’t find mandarinquats)
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• salt to taste

Directions: 

• Chop up fennel and Mandrianquats in even uniform pieces.
• Sear the fennel in a pan at medium to high for about a minute or two with olive oil and salt.
• Turn down the heat to low. Add the Mandrianquats.
• Fennel is ready when its juicy and tender. This could take around 20-25 minutes depending on the thickness of the fennel.
• Serve warm.

Toddler Friendly Parts of this Recipe: 

• Chopping ( however, its best if everything is pre-chopped for easier handling)
• Adding chopped pieces to the pan.
• Adding a dash of salt when vegetables are in the pan.