We entertained another family at the cottage last weekend whose list of dietary dos and don't are almost as long as my arm - and unlike most families I know the restrictions are all due to the parents' eating habits, including allergies, religious and health restrictions and basic pickiness (cilantro I get, but potatoes?!). I consider it something of a professional challenge to come up with meals we can all sit down and eat together.
One night's dinner was a lovely vegetarian feast of stuffed baby eggplants, risotto and salad which I knew was unlikely to thrill the 5 children around the table, so I added talapia to the menu purely for their benefit. I'd actually forgotten the fish until dinner was almost on the table, so I quickly cut it into pieces, coated it in a combination of mayonnaise and dijon mustard, dredged it in a mixture of flour and cornmeal and pan-fried it. It was almost shocking how much the kids enjoyed the fish - I mean really, our friends' 6 year old told me it was better than candy (ok, he's definately been brainwashed) and M. ate a whole filet all by himself. I didn't even get to taste it, but I'm sure I would have found it bland since salt was the only real seasoning, and yet... the kids loved it. A good lesson for me.
So now I'm going to work backwards and adapt something the kids like for the grown-ups for a change -instead of the other way around. I figure a little sauce of brown butter, capers, lemon and parsley poured over top of the boring fish would make the adults happy too... recipe to come in our next book (once we figure out what that's going to be!).
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