Archives for March 2015

Quick Vegetable Box Recipes

March 29, 2015 By All That I'm Eating 6 Comments

I regularly get a vegetable box delivered for a few reasons: I like that I have to use what I receive which means I get more variety than I probably would otherwise and there’s only so many times you can make mushroom risotto so I find myself trying out new recipes to use the vegetables. Grown With Love got in touch to see if I would like to try out some of their veg so I was looking forward to getting stuck in.

The vegetables that came from Grown With Love were very nice, they were all prepared which is something that I never buy normally. Considering they were prepared I was impressed with the shelf life of the veg and that the texture remained good. I received: butternut squash and sweet potato mix (chopped 50:50), butternut squash (peeled and deseeded), tenderstem broccoli (in bags and some that came with asparagus too), sweetcorn (some with garlic butter, some without) and sweet potato wedges. read more

Deli at Home Review

March 24, 2015 By All That I'm Eating 9 Comments

I’ve tried out a few different recipe boxes now and I really enjoy sampling new ones; I like the variety and diversity of recipes and it gives me an opportunity to cook things that I haven’t tried before. The most recent box to arrive in my kitchen was one from Deli at Home. The three recipes I chose to try were: Chicken Bhuna Gosht, Tonkatsu Pork and Mushroom Stroganoff.

I really liked that all the ingredients were sent in individual paper bags (for the ambient ones) and plastic bags (for chilled) that I could just put straight in the fridge when it arrived. It made it really easy to grab the two bags and get cooking. It was also a nice touch that they sent a box of pistachio biscuits with the box as a little sweet treat after the meal. read more

The Elephant at The Market Newbury

March 20, 2015 By All That I'm Eating 3 Comments

This was a gifted meal.

I’m not sure how many of you lovely readers of my blog are in or around Newbury but I think I speak for everyone when I say that (finally) it seems as if Newbury’s culinary scene is improving. We had a few nice restaurants in the town centre, (The Square and Petit Square spring to mind but both now closed), the family run Italian (Valle D’Oro) and many country pubs but we went through pretty slim pickings in Newbury town centre for some time.

It seems now however that times are a changing and we have new places in Newbury in which to dine (chain restaurants I’m not looking at you). Very exciting. We have Brebis for French cuisine, The Newbury is in the Michelin guide, The Lock Stock and Barrel has had a facelift and we have the newly opened Elephant at The Market. read more

My Perfectly Imperfect Chocolate Cake

March 15, 2015 By All That I'm Eating 18 Comments

I have a secret and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who keeps this quiet. I love baking, but, most of the time it never turns out quite how I envisaged it would. Getting all of a huff in the kitchen when the butter is still too cold, spilling the ingredients even when I’m being extra careful and being super paranoid checking the oven temperature is an awful lot of hard work for something that turns out too flat, not quite right or sinks in the middle. Cakes, I’m looking at you. Frankly, I’ve had enough of aiming for perfection and frowning at anything that dares to come out of the oven less than 100% correct, and if it tastes good who cares if it looks a bit skewiff? Enter my Perfectly Imperfect Chocolate Cake. read more

Marleyspoon Recipe Box

March 9, 2015 By All That I'm Eating 6 Comments

I love a meal plan. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen a few of my handwritten plans appear previously. Sometimes though I am a bit out of inspiration and can’t face a week’s worth of pasta or rice and it’s nice to hand over the meal planning baton to a third party. Enter recipe boxes. I like to go home knowing that I have a meal ready and waiting, I just haven’t cooked it yet so when Marleyspoon asked if I would be interested in trying theirs out I was very much looking forward to its arrival.

When I got the box I was really impressed with how it was all packaged up. The chilled ingredients were still very cold, the brown paper bags were a nice touch and the handwritten labels all made it feel like a luxury box. The handy thing about the brown bags is that all the ingredients for each recipe are in each bag so when you’re ready to cook you grab a bag and go rather than scrabbling round the fridge and cupboards finding the ingredients. The first recipe I tried was Chicken with Aubergine Caponata and Polenta. I’ve never made polenta or caponata so was interested in trying this. The chicken drumsticks were absolutely huge so there was plenty of it to go round, as you can see my plate wasn’t quite big enough to hold it all comfortably. The recipe instructions were easy to follow and the meal was cooked within the 30-40 minute time guidelines. I really liked the caponata and would make it again when I had an aubergine, the chicken was full of flavour but I wasn’t that keen on the polenta (no fault of the polenta, it’s a personal texture thing). The other recipe was Paneer Curry with Carrot and Kohlrabi Salad and Rice. This recipe starts with blending coriander and parsley together which I actually found quite hard to do. I used an immersion blender like the chap in the photo but I think using a food processor would be much easier! The smell of the fresh ingredients once blended was really nice. I liked that this came with a five rice mix and I found it cooked really well. The paneer was easy to cook too; I’ve had some before that didn’t fry as well. This meal was again quite large and looked very appetising once cooked. I didn’t have a lot of the kohlrabi salad, for me it was one thing too many, but it added a good crunch to the meal. The ingredients that came in the box were of a very high quality, the kind of ingredients that I would try to buy myself and of all the boxes I’ve tried to far Marleyspoon’s seemed to generate the least amount of packaging and rubbish. This may sound a bit funny but I thought the portion sizes were too large; both of the recipes could easily have fed three and with a bit more rice or polenta could have even fed four. This is the most expensive box that I have tried at £36 for four meals (two meals for two) including delivery. Currently you do get £10 off your first order making it £26. Although it’s expensive I think that’s down to the quality of ingredients and it does have a very high end, luxury feel to it.

To see how this recipe box compares to the others, take a look at my Recipe Box Comparison post here.

Thank you to Marleyspoon for the recipe box. All opinions expressed are my own.

Duck Lettuce Wraps with Gressingham Duck

March 4, 2015 By All That I'm Eating 14 Comments

Gressingham Duck Lettuce Wraps - All That I'm Eating (1 of 4)

As it’s Mother’s Day soon there are many things to consider: will it be flowers, chocolates, something else or a simple card. My Mum isn’t picky or fussy and would be just as happy with a few daffodils as a full blown Mother’s Day themed weekend. So really, as our lives both revolve around feeding us and other people, I think the real decision is whether to eat out somewhere or eat in? Both have their merits. Having lunch at a restaurant means no washing up and someone else worries about what to cook but is much more costly than eating at home. Cooking at home is cheaper, you can make it your own and you can eat as much as you want. I think I’ve just answered my own question. However, I don’t want to be spending hours in the kitchen getting all of a fluster and make my Mum feel bad about the hours of work and mountains of washing up that have been created. Simplicity is key and so I give you my relaxed, Asian inspired Mother’s Day lunch: Duck Lettuce Wraps. You will need (this is for four but just keep adding more bits for more people): For the duck:

2 Gressingham duck breasts
1 pack of Gressingham Duck Mini Fillets
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

To wrap:

Wraps
Whole lettuce leaves

Salad and crunch:

Cucumber
Carrot
Spring onions
Coriander
Chillies
Sesame seeds

Dips:

Chilli sauce(s)
Soy sauce
Hoisin sauce
Plum sauce

First of all, get the table laid and ready then as you get things prepped you can get them straight to the table.

Slice and chop the cucumber, carrot and spring onion however you like. I find sticks work well when you wrap up carrot or cucumber and slices of spring onion are more welcome than bigger pieces.

Pukka Teas for Fairtrade Fortnight

March 1, 2015 By All That I'm Eating 7 Comments

Fairtrade Fortnight is running from 23rd Feb to 8th March this year and the theme for this year’s fortnight is: choose products that change lives. For me, the most important thing about choosing a fair trade product is knowing that I am making a difference to someone by making that choice. I don’t know about you but the most common fair trade food I see available is: bananas, sugar, coffee and chocolate.

For some reason I didn’t even think about tea being fair trade even though I have been buying Clipper tea for a while and it has the fair trade logo on and everything! Last year I made some Fairtrade shortbread to use as many fair ingredients as possible and I wanted to raise awareness of Fairtrade Fortnight again this year because as the film here shows, it is certainly worthwhile. read more