Kid-Friendly Recipes from A Chef’s Life

Have you had a chance to check out PBS’s A Chef‘s Life, the character-driven docu-series that takes viewers inside the life and kitchen of Chef Vivian Howard and her two restaurants located in the low country of eastern North Carolina?  She offers delicious recipes and I love their lifestyle.  Can I go live on a farm somewhere too?!

Rollups & Vanilla Pecan Butter

Rollups:

2 slices whole wheat sandwich bread of your choice

1/4 cup vanilla pecan butter

1/2 ripe banana, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

Vanilla Pecan Butter:

makes 1/2 cup

2 cups pecans

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1 teaspoon honey

1/4 teaspoon salt

Make the pecan butter: In a 10-12 inch skillet or sauté pan, toast the pecans over medium heat for about 2 minutes or until they are just becoming fragrant. The may darken slightly in color but do not let them get noticeably darker in places. If you find a few spots where this happens, pluck those pecans out.

Let the pecans cool completely, then transfer them to the bowl of a food processor along with all the little dark seeds from the center of the vanilla bean. Blend the pecans for 1 minute. Stop and scrape down the sides. Blend another minute. Scrape down the sides again and add the honey and salt. Continue blending a third minute or until the pecan butter is quite smooth and loose. The end product will be much more looser than any peanut butter you’ve ever seen and a bit less viscous than almond butter. It will pour off a spoon.

Depending on the power of your food processor or the sharpness of its’ blade making the pecan butter could take longer than 3 minutes. Just keep an eye out for separation of nut and fat. If this starts to happen, let the pecan butter cool down before blending further. Store the pecan butter, sealed at room temperature, for up to 2 weeks. Stir well before using.

Make the rollups: Use a rolling pin, flatten each slice of bread to 1/8 of an inch thick. Spread roughly 2 tablespoons pecan butter over each flat piece and lay the banana slices overtop. Roll the bread up in a pinwheel and take it wherever you need to eat.

Sweet Potato Pie Popsicles

makes 4 – 4 ounce popsicles

1 cup roasted sweet potato puree

1/2 cup plain Greek Yogurt (I use full fat, but you could use non fat to good effect)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup milk (cow’s, almond, hemp or soy are all fine)

2 tablespoons orange juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Put all the ingredients in your blender and blend till the mixture is super smooth. Transfer to popsicle molds and freeze for 4 hours before serving.

About Vivian Howard:

The character-driven docu-series takes viewers inside the life and kitchen of Chef Vivian Howard and her two restaurants located in the low country of eastern North Carolina, where she explores both traditional and modern applications of quintessential Southern ingredients. The series is one part everyday life, one part instruction, mixed in with an absolute appreciation of food. Season three of A Chef’s Life debuts this September and, with husband Ben Knight and her twin children by her side, Vivian balances the high-stakes of managing two restaurants while writing a cookbook and traveling for food festivals.

Be sure to check out Vivian’s Oven Baked Okra Fries recipe here!