I'm Hungry by Jorge Martin - Let's get COOKING!

REVIEW: I'm Hungry by Jorge Martin 

On an island far far away there’s a distant rumble…. Not just the rumble of a baby dragon hatching but the rumble of her very very hungry tummy! Visiting (and devouring) the other residents of the island certainly satisfies Baby Dragons hunger but makes for a very lonely friend-less existence. Mother Dragon is not pleased with her daughter’s decadent dietary decision and teaches Baby Dragon a ticklish lesson and the virtues of a vegetarian lifestyle.

Jorge's wicked sense of humour and distinguished illustration style make for a seriously delicious picture book and one I will no doubt digest over and over again.

BUY A COPY HERE 

All this reading has given us a serious hunger, so little Book Sniffer and I set about making some healthy but scrumptious vegetarian snacks inspired by "I'm Hungry" in hopes that we can tempt Baby Dragon into a visit to Book Sniffer Towers in the very near future. 

A tattooed BANANA! 

Here are our easy peasy step-by-step recipes, maybe you can try making them with your little sniffers, we'd love to see photos (@maybeswabey) 

STARTER  

Fruity Cockatoo Crudités

YOU WILL NEED: 

• 2 x Apples – One large red apple and one small green
• 2 Small peppers – red / green / orange OR yellow depending on your preferred plumage 
• 1 x small satsuma 
• Olive x 1 
• Cucumber 
• 2 dabs of cream cheese
• A small handful of "Herby Foliage" I've used Basil because its delicious
• Sharp knife / serving plate

INSTRUCTION: 
(red for grown-ups / 
orange for little helpers) 

1. Cut the two apples in half / place the large half on the plate as a body and the small half on the plate as a head.
2. Cut out some feather shapes from the colourful peppers and a small pity triangle for a beak / place them on the plate as feathery wings and secure the beak to the small head apple with some cream cheese. 
3. Cut out a ziggy zaggy shape from a piece of cucumber / place it on top of the head for parrot hair. 
4. Peel a satsuma place at the bottom of the large body apple for cockatoo claw feet. 
5. Cut a black olive into thin slices / dab two small spots of cream cheese above the beak and pop the olive slices on top for eye balls. 
6. FINISHING TOUCHES - Add some herby foliage for the cockatoo to perch in (can be herbs or washed salad leaves.)
7. CHOMP AWAY  

TA-DA! 

MAIN COURSE: 

Magnificent  

Bread-Beast-Pizza-Dragon with 
Speckled Dough-Ball Dragon Eggs 

Served with roaring hot lava hot dipping sauce!

YOU WILL NEED:

PIZZA DOUGH

·      500g Strong White Flour
     2TSP Salt
     7 gm sachet of yeast
    3 tablespoons Olive Oil
      300 ml warm water

   Nigella seeds for decorating the eggs

   Mozzarella pearls for stuffing the eggs

LAVA SAUCE

4 large juicy tomatoes

1 yellow pepper

1 clove garlic

1 table spoon sweet chilli sauce

1 pinch of dried thyme

1 pinch salt

1 pinch sugar

To make the dough...

1. Measure out all your ingredients. 
2. Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. 
3. Make a well in the centre, then add the oil and water, and mix well. 
4. Tip onto a lightly floured work surface and knead. 
5. Once the dough is satin-smooth, Place it in a lightly oiled bowl to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

While the dough is proving make the hot lava sauce. 

1. Chop up all the ingredients roughly put in a saucepan with a dash of olive oil simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. 
2. Mix is a food processor until smooth or slightly chunky if you prefer 
3. pour into a small dipping dish and set aside - if you are not a fan of spicy food leave the chilli sauce out OR add a small spoon of cream cheese to the mix. 

• Time for some freestyle dough moulding fun - make a sleeping dragon using 1/2 of your bread dough. set on a greased flat baking tray 
• Roll the remaining dough into small balls insert mozzarella pearl and roll in seeds to give the effect of being charred and place on an oiled tray. 
• Bake the dragon in at 180 for approx 25-30 minutes - keep checking him! (I dusted mine with smoked Paprika for an extra smokey flavour) 
• bake the dough balls for approx 12-15 minutes - keep checking them. 
• Plate up on a large board, pile the eggs in a nest of salad leaves and lay the dragon next to his lava dip - now dip and enjoy! 

We also made HUNGRY ELECAKES 

But in all honesty I am a dreadful baker so we cheated and brought a packed mix then free styled the decoration!

HUGE Thanks to the kind folk at Puffin for assisting us with this blog post! 

FOLLOW Them on Twitter 

Jorge Martin @jorgemartin 

Puffin Books @PuffinBooks