'Cooking for baby' records my experiences with feeding our little girl, Abhi, who loves variety in food, just like me ! Finding newer food options to keep her interested has been a challenge - sometimes exasperating but more often, exciting!

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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Black Raisins health booster

8 months and above (toddlers love it even more)

This is an easy and totally yummy way to get your little one's iron and calcium levels upto the mark; boost respiratory health; prevent constipation; and improve general physical well being.


Black raisins - 100 gms
Rock candy (rock sugar/mishri/kalkandam) - 50 gms ( I use only the unrefined variety)
Water - 1 cup

Wash the raisins really well to remove sediments. Soak in warm water for about 1/2 hour. Rinse the rock candy and remove superficial dirt. Boil water with candy in it till it dissolves. Strain. Pour into a thick bottomed skillet and add in the raisins. Simmer on gentle fire stirring once in a while to prevent burning. Keep it on till the mixture reaches a thick jam like consistency. Cool and store in an air tight glass container. Give your baby a liberal spoonful everyday as a superdelicious treat cum health tonic.

PS: I use unrefined rock candy which is traditionally attributed with a better nutritional profile.

Adjust quantity given according to baby's age. Mine started on her spoonful from her 9th month. Start by giving a smaller quantity if your baby is not used to raisins.

10 comments:

Natasha on February 4, 2011 at 7:39 AM said...

Hey, that's a great idea! Thanks for sharing! Do we have a substitute for rock candy?

Dershana on February 4, 2011 at 3:00 PM said...

hi natasha, i generally make it with rock candy because back home in Kerala it is an age old tradition to give baby rock candy dissolved water. it is said to help prevent or lessen phlegm and recurrent bouts of cold. which part of the world are you in? I believe rock candy is available almost everywhere. sometimes, they go by the name of rock sugar/sugar candy too. If you really cant find it, then use raw /unrefined sugar/demerara.

Sreenidhi Nayak on March 1, 2011 at 3:46 AM said...

Hi,
You have a great blog about baby food :) Thnx for posting such useful info.
Can we use jaggery instead of rock candy ?

Sree

Dershana on March 3, 2011 at 1:38 AM said...

Hi Sree,

Thank you for your kind words. Please do refer to my previous comment. I've never made this with jaggery, it should come out fine. However, rock candy is used for certain properties. Since jaggery has its own nutritional benefits, u will just be replacing one 'goodness' with another :-)

Unknown on March 11, 2011 at 5:34 PM said...

I just tried ths... But it didnt come out well.... ther were seeds in raisins and it dint become like jam,the covering of the raisins r ther... My babies seem to like it,but they dont hav teeth yet... What shall I do now?plz give me some suggestion...

Dershana on March 12, 2011 at 12:20 AM said...

Hi Bini,

Did you use ordinary black raisins? These generally have thin skins. What you can try is soak them overnight before proceeding with the rest of the steps. If the ones you have bought have very big seeds, then once they are soaked through plop out the seeds and proceed.

Unknown on March 12, 2011 at 11:25 AM said...

thank u so much...I wil surely try ths and let u kno...I've got twin babies and they r just 10mnths old now... they r very lazy to hav fud...I

Dershana on March 12, 2011 at 3:50 PM said...

u are welcome, bini. have they started walking? just dont force them, provide them colourful interesting stuff instead. all babies seem to have their 'love food' 'hate food' episodes :-)

Unknown on March 20, 2011 at 4:49 PM said...

i made it and came out well... and my babies r loving it...its the only thing my little girl eats without making any trouble... Thank u soo much.They've not yet started walking... just trying 2 stand their own now..

Dershana on March 21, 2011 at 1:07 AM said...

Bini, thank you very much for taking time off to come back here and letting me know. Really appreciate that :-D

Do glance through The Foodie FAQ link on this blog, you might find small tipe to get your lil ones more interested.

cheers!

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