Evening Edge

Several weeks ago I criticized Jessica Seinfeld's best-selling book, "Deceptively Delicious," a primer on how to puree vegetables and hide them inside dishes that kids will eat.

I heard from many readers on both sides of the debate. Many parents felt the column was a snotty potshot at a poor mother who just wanted to see a few green beans disappear down her kids' gullets. Others agreed with my sentiment that the whole process seemed an exercise in pandering that didn't teach children to develop their palates. A few even echoed the "one bite rule" that my own offspring survived.

John Kessler writes food features and a column about food and more for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution E-mail John Kessler Recent Kessler columns Who has the best baguettes - H&F or Alons?  Sweet! Kid goes for more than Yogos  A new appreciation for after-dinner drinks         More John Kessler Related: AJC Food & Drink Evening Edge Atlanta Restaurant reviews and search Recipes from Atlanta restaurants Search AJC recipes

The fact is, I've always felt it a duty to expose my kids to strange foods that appear gross but harbor potential deliciousness. This explains why, one recent morning, I found myself bringing a pungent, gray-skinned lower half of a dried salted cod to their school.

I had volunteered to teach a cooking lesson to my high schooler's French class. Another parent may have, say, won the students over with eclairs. Too easy. I figured that since the teacher was bringing different French-speaking countries into the curriculum, I was free to demonstrate a recipe for Martinique-style salt cod fritters called accras de morue.

The class began with a brief explanation of how a salted North Sea fish came to be eaten in the West Indies — namely through the 18th-century triangle trade that brought slaves to the Americas, sugar and cotton to Europe, manufactured goods to Africa and a taste for salt cod everywhere.

The kids listened but mostly looked with alarm at the smelly dead thing I was brandishing. I had soaked it overnight to soften and desalinate it, and all we had to do was separate the usable flesh from the skin, bones and squiggly bits.

It wasn't so bad, once you dug your hands in, and before long we had a bowl full of snowy, boneless fish. Using a recipe I found on a French online cooking forum (www.forums.supertoinette.com), we mashed the fish and added chopped onions, green onions, peppers, herbs, eggs, baking powder and enough flour to bind it all into a batter.

A number of my helpers made it clear they would not be trying the fritters. That's fine, I said, as I dropped spoonfuls of the batter into a vat of hot oil. They puffed, browned, crisped and sizzled a bit as I removed them to paper towels.

You know how this story ends, right? Who can resist fried food, even if it does contain salted fishtail scrapings? I think I got at least one fritter into just about every kid but the vegetarian. In fact, they disappeared as soon as they emerged from the oil. One girl seemed a bit confused when she told me, between mouthfuls of fritter, that she really didn't like fish.

That is the mystery wrapped in the enigma of salt cod. Its strong odor belies a flavor that doesn't really register as fishy. In fact, is it compulsively edible in the way of other preserved foods, like bacon.

I think we spend too much time catering to kids and end up reinforcing a narrow safe zone of acceptable foods. In fact, I think it's our duty to expose young people to a wider variety of foods than they normally see.

But do they have to try these challenging flavors? If they're my kids, yes. Just one bite.

Accras de Morue (West Indian Salt Cod Fritters) 6-8 servings

Hands on: 20 minutes Total time: 1 day

Until recently, most salt cod was salted and dried to a fare-thee-well and needed several days' soaking in successive changes of water to become edible. Today, most of the salt cod is ready to use after a brief soak. While I used whole, uncleaned salt cod for my classroom demonstration, the filleted version is just as good and much easier to use. I strongly recommend it. Look for it at Your DeKalb Farmers Market.

Sodium content in salt cod varies widely and much of it is leached out in the soaking, so it may be much lower than the nutritional figure given here.

1/2 pound of salt cod (1/3 pound if using filleted)

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped

3 green onions, slivered (green and white parts)

2 eggs

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 serrano chile, minced (or 1/2 jalapeño)

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Oil for frying

Soak the salt cod in water overnight in the refrigerator. Place in fresh water in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain. When cool enough to handle, carefully remove bones and skin and place white flesh in a mixing bowl. Mash with a fork. Add onion, green onions, eggs, garlic, chile, parsley, thyme, baking powder and salt and mix well.

Add 2 1/2 cups of flour. Continue adding flour until you have a thick batter that holds its shape when scooped, as if for hush puppies.

Fry golf-ball-size scoops in hot oil until puffed and well- browned. Drain on absorbent paper.

Per serving (based on 6): 553 calories (percent of calories from fat, 35), 33 grams protein, 54 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 21 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 128 milligrams cholesterol, 2,445 milligrams sodium.