Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater by Matthew Amster-Burton

  • Baby creamed spinach

    from Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater Hungry Monkey by Matthew Amster-Burton

    • Categories: Children & baby food; Side dish; Vegetarian
    • Ingredients: baby spinach; store-cupboard ingredients
    show

  • Show all Recipes...

Notes about this book

This book does not currently have any notes.

Notes about Recipes in this book

  • Simple pad Thai

    • Rutabaga on October 20, 2016

      This is indeed really simple to make. Since the sauce can be made in advance, this would be a great easy camping meal. I used chicken instead of eggs, but otherwise made it as is. In the future, I will beef it up with some shallot or scallions, garlic, and maybe a little shredded carrot. The noodles were still a little stiff even though I soaked them for 22 minutes, so next time I will try soaking them for 30 minutes. I would also increase the ratio of sauce to noodles, especially when using chicken, as it need a little more to get some of the flavor. And although I doubles the recipe, I found that my husband, five-year-old, and I ate almost the entire dish. If you only cook four ounces of noodles as written, that doesn't seem like enough for two adults.

    • Rutabaga on October 26, 2016

      I made this again using a full pound of noodles and all the remaining sauce (about 1 1/2 cups), adding shredded carrot, thinly sliced broccoli, and tofu. Still, I had some difficulty with the rice noodles. After soaking close to half an hour (twice the time recommended on the package), it still took the better part of ten minutes for them to truly soften enough in the sautee pan with the sauce and other remaining ingredients, and ultimately they became very sticky. I also felt that the lime was too pronounced in the sauce; it may be that my lime was just an especially sour one. Next time I will need to do a better job tasting the sauce to ensure a good balance of sour, salty, and sweet.

  • Stacked green chile enchiladas

    • MollyB on February 14, 2018

      Loved these! A bit time-consuming to make, if you're making the cowboy beans and the sauce, but they are very tasty. If you make the sauce and beans ahead of time, it comes together fairly quickly.

  • Browned and braised Brussels sprouts

    • Rutabaga on February 23, 2017

      This works brilliantly as a quick and tasty way to get brussels sprouts on the table for dinner. Browning and then braising them leads to sprouts that are moist with nicely caramelized edges. Of course, the buttery sauce that forms as the liquid cooks down doesn't hurt, either.

  • Penne with Brussels sprouts and bacon

  • Broiled teriyaki mackerel

    • scolere on April 09, 2017

      super quick recipe, adding a lot of flavor to the mackerel. Also applicable to chicken, pork, beef or tofu! For fish i would suggest grilling instead of broiling, if possible. Cooking the mackerel in the pan is also ok, but requires to be very careful. I served this with basmati rice and boiled chard and yellow beet with a sauce of soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, sesame oil and sprinkled with umegoma sesame seeds.

You must Create an Account or Sign In to add a note to this book.

Reviews about this book

  • Scribd

    Excerpt from the book.

    Full review

  • Tea & Cookies

    This is the gift I’m giving to all the food-loving parents I know, trying to raise their own hungry monkeys.

    Full review
  • ISBN 10 0547336896
  • ISBN 13 9780547336893
  • Published Apr 09 2010
  • Format Paperback
  • Page Count 260
  • Language English
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher Mariner Books
  • Imprint Mariner Books

Publishers Text

Matthew Amster-Burton was a restaurant critic and food writer long before he and his wife, Laurie, had Iris. Now he's a full-time, stay-at-home Dad and his experience with food has changed ...a little.

Hungry Monkey is the story of Amster-Burton's life as a food-lover--with a child. It's the story of how he came to realize that kids don't need puree in a jar or special menus at restaurants and that raising an adventurous eater is about exposure, invention, and patience. He writes of the highs and lows of teaching your child about food--the high of rediscovering how something tastes for the first time through a child's unflinching reaction, the low of thinking you have a precocious vegetable fiend on your hands only to discover that a child's preferences change from day to day (and may take years to include vegetables again). Sharing in his culinary capers is little Iris, a budding gourmand and a zippy critic herself--who makes hug sandwiches, gobbles up hot chilis, and even helps around the kitchen sometimes.

A memoir on the wild joys of food and parenting and the marvelous melange of the two--Hungry Monkey takes food enthusiasts on a new adventure in eating (with dozens of delicious recipes!). In the end, our guide reminds us: "Food is fun, and you get to enjoy it three times a day, plus snacks!"

Other cookbooks by this author