I haven’t made this delicious beetroot risotto since before the boys were born but it is a great one for adults and babies alike. Although not for toddlers.  Not according to the toddler anyway.  His main complaint was that it was red.  I said it was purple.  He said…well you can imagine, it was a lengthy and unproductive discussion.  I don’t think it can have helped that (unbeknownst to me) he had tomato risotto (aka Orange Rice) at nursery.

Earlier in the day I had been trying to think of ways to distract the boys from the fact that we were having blackberries for the third day in a row.  Then, whilst attempting a (futile) rainy-day decluttering of The Cupboard of Doom, I stumbled across a set of lego man ice lolly moulds.  Surely this could not fail.

Sadly, for anyone looking for actual recipes here, there was not much change to the sorbet/jelly recipes that I have previously written about: 400g blackberries and 40g sugar.  Fruit gently stewed and juice (yield 200ml, three lollies) pushed through a sieve. I added just a dash of lemon and about 20ml water to help achieve a firmer freeze.  They took ages to set though and only one of them was firm enough for an outing at dinner time so I probably could have got away with more water.

The 39 year old was certainly impressed: “Oh, cool, a Lego man icy pole!”

The toddler was also impressed but more so when the man’s head fell off onto the table.