All That I'm Eating

Recipe ideas for budget meals, everyday cooking and a little indulgence. Travel inspiration and restaurant reviews too.

Smoked Salmon and Broccoli Quiche

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I used to think of quiche as a dull, beige pastry which got wheeled out from old cookery books from time to time and no one was particularly fussed about it. Turns out I was wrong. It’s a most excellent pastry. I cooked my smoked salmon and broccoli quiche a few weeks ago, divided it up and froze it in wedges. Now I’m working from home I love to have something interesting for lunch. When it’s quiche day, it’s the best day of the week.

The freshness of the broccoli and spinach combined with the flavourful smoked salmon is a winning combination. It feels rather luxurious to have it for lunch. read more

Blackcurrant Frangipane Tart

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I can’t say no to blackcurrants; whatever they are in I will like it. They have such a distinctive flavour and when I found some at the market I had to set about making a blackcurrant frangipane tart. This tart is a marriage of two of my favourite things: blackcurrants and sweet almond frangipane.

The best thing about this tart comes from using raw blackcurrants. As they cook in the frangipane filling they burst and become sweet and sticky. The blackcurrants retain their sharp berry flavour but taint the tart with splashes of deep purple impromptu jam. With autumn just around the corner I can’t think of anything else I would rather spoon into my face. read more

Rainbow Carrot Tart with Summer Herbs and Goat’s Cheese

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I often get left with carrots at the bottom of the fridge. They play an overlooked, but important, base in so many meals: part of a mirepoix, in casseroles and in pies to name a few. Rarely, in my kitchen anyway, do the carrots get to be the star of the dish. So when some beautiful rainbow carrots arrived in the veg box it would have been rude to simply chuck them into various dinners. This time, I wanted to celebrate this lovely root in a rainbow carrot tart with summer herbs and goat’s cheese. A seasonal halfway tart if you will; one that is both full of summer flavours and the anticipation of autumn. read more

Strawberry and Peanut Tart

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Strawberry and Peanut Tart

Minimum fuss and maximum results were the name of the game with my most recent dessert. Another hot day, the last thing I needed was to be baking pastry, so I didn’t, but made a tart nonetheless. My Strawberry and Peanut Tart makes use of a few sneaky kitchen shortcuts to make a delicious and impressive pudding. A chocolate and peanut base smothered with cream and stacked high with fresh fruit it almost seemed a shame to cut into it. But, you know, someone had to.

Ingredients

You will need (for 6-8 servings):

  • 180g dark chocolate digestives
  • 2 heaped tbsp peanut butter
  • 3 tbsp salted butter
  • 300ml double cream
  • 150ml low fat Greek yoghurt
  • Strawberries and cherries (or other berries)
  • 2 tbsp peanuts

Method

Start by heating the peanut butter and butter together in a small pan on a low heat. Stir from time to time until melted and mixed together.

Add the digestive biscuits to a bowl and then smash them up with the end of a rolling pin until you have a breadcrumb texture. Pour over the melted peanut butter and butter and mix together well.

Line a 20cm spring form cake tin then tip the biscuit mix into the tin, spread out over the base and flatten the top using the back of a spoon.

Refrigerate for an hour minimum, longer if you have it.

Prepare the fruit; chop the green bits off the strawberries, stone the cherries if you like, and put to one side.

Add the peanuts to a small, dry frying pan and heat on medium to toast the peanuts. Remove from the heat when lightly golden and smelling marvellous then crush in a pestle and mortar or in a bag with a rolling pin.

Whip the double cream until you have firm peaks. Gently fold the yoghurt through the cream.

Remove the base from the fridge and put onto a large plate. Pile the cream on top of the base and then top with the fruit. Sprinkle over the crushed peanuts.

This was one of those desserts that was so satisfying to cut through with a knife. Firstly you have to move it through the heavy fruit into the fluffy cream, then you meet a little resistance at the base with a very satisfying chink when knife meets plate. The dark chocolate in the digestives gives a hint of chocolate throughout the tart without being too overwhelming and the peanut taste in the base mirrored by the peanuts over the top brings a great taste and texture. Adding the yoghurt to the cream not only makes the cream go further without adding any extra fat but also gives a nice tang and freshness to the whole dessert. Juicy strawberries and cherries made a fantastic topping for this but any berries would work well too.

Blood Orange Tart with Caramelised Blood Oranges

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Blood Orange Tart topped with caramelised blood orange slices

I absolutely love blood oranges for several reasons: firstly they are just so pretty it’s hard not to like them, secondly as they are in season in January they are a welcome citrusy start to the year and thirdly I love squeezing a big bowl full to make my own pink juice. I wanted to make something to show off blood oranges at their best and I’ve fancied my hand at a tart au citron for a while. So I thought a sort of blood orange tart (or tart au blood orange) topped with caramelised blood oranges would be pretty tasty.

You will need (for a 20cm tart):

For the pastry –

  • 220g plain flour
  • 120g butter (I used salted)
  • Cold water

For the filling –

  • 5 eggs
  • 150ml double cream
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 100ml blood orange juice (no bits)
  • Zest 1 blood orange

For the caramelised oranges –

  • 1 blood orange, sliced, pips removed
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 4tbsp water

Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour until you have a breadcrumb texture then bring the mixture together into a dough using a little cold water.

Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface then roll out and line a 20cm tart tin.

Cut or roll off the excess and prick the base with a fork.

Line the pastry with some greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans.

Place into a preheated oven at 160C onto a hot baking tray. Bake for around 15 minutes or until almost dry then remove the baking beans and put back into the oven for another 10 minutes or until the case is golden brown and dry.

Make the filling by whisking together the orange juice, cream, sugar, eggs and zest together.

Pour the filling mix into the tart case then return to the oven for 30-35 minutes or until there’s just a little wobble left in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

When the tart is cool, make the caramelised blood oranges. Add the water and sugar to a large frying pan on a low heat, stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat until the syrup is simmering then add the blood orange slices and simmer for around 10 minutes or until softened and glazed. Use to top the tart.

I made this on a Saturday evening to have after a pretty healthy dinner (I have to make up for the calories somehow) and it was just right. The blood oranges give such a lovely delicate flavour to the filling, the slight saltiness from the pastry and the sweet, sharp, citrus oranges on top made for a pretty perfect pudding. It also lasted quite well and the pastry stayed crisp even after being in the fridge overnight. I find the flavour of orange can get a bit lost in some cooking, but with this, it’s all about the orange.

Millionaire’s Tart

By 25 Comments

Millionaire's Tart with Salted Chocolate - All That I'm Eating

Baking is something I save for one of two occasions; a rainy day (classic excuse) or a day where my eyebrows have been almost continuously furrowed. With the return of the Great British Bake Off on our screens I felt it was high time I got out my scales and greaseproof paper to make something truly indulgent. Well if you’re only going to bake occasionally then why make something healthy? Millionaire’s Tart is possibly my favourite tart of all time. Also, I wanted to make sure that I could retain my pastry skills to ensure I avoided the dreaded soggy bottom.

Ingredients

You will need (for a 20cm tart):

For the pastry –

  • 220g plain flour
  • 120g butter (I used salted)
  • Cold water
  • 1 can dulce de leche

For the chocolate topping –

  • 200g high cocoa chocolate
  • 150ml double cream
  • 25g salted butter
  • Sea salt, I really like Cornish Sea Salt for this as I think it has a lovely clean flavour

I was so impressed with how my pastry case turned out I felt I needed to provide evidence that I had made it myself!

Method

Make the pastry by rubbing the butter into the flour until you have a breadcrumb texture then bring the mixture together into a dough using a little cold water.

Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface then roll out and line a 20cm tart tin.

Cut or roll off the excess and prick the base with a fork.

Line the pastry with some greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans.

Place into a preheated oven at 200C onto a hot baking tray. Bake for around 15 minutes or until almost dry then remove the baking beans and put back into the oven for another 5 minutes or until the case is golden brown and dry.
Leave to cool. read more

Caramelised Rhubarb Galette des Rois

By 25 Comments

Oh rhubarb. Not only the choice swear word for the less potty mouthed among us but also a rather delectable vegetable. I know it’s sort of a fruit but as it doesn’t have any seeds I will class it as a vegetable. I acquired my most recent handful of stalks after spending a lovely morning at a local farm shop (more about that in a separate post). I was even allowed to pull this straight out of the ground myself which was a rewarding, if somewhat exhausting, activity. read more

Pear and Damson Lattice Pie

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Pear and Damson Lattice Pie - finished

You know when you’ve just always wanted to make something? I’ve always wanted to try a lattice pie; one with lovely red fruit under the interwoven top. I imagined it would be assembled in a cloud of flour with pastry flying all over the place while I tried to weave the lattice. I envisaged having to try and find my inner Mr Tickle. In reality it was a comparatively calm affair with only slight frowning during the construction. 

Some people, I like to think of them as having iron teeth, will happily eat a damson just as it is. I find them far too sour; comparative to eating a stick of rhubarb, and so cook mine (or mix them with gin) to encourage their flavour with a little sugar. Damsons are rock hard plums with a lovely deep purple skin. I have been lucky to find some growing nearby but they are so high up only some enthusiastic tree shaking would get them down. I think I’d get some funny looks. Luckily my greengrocer has ample damsons and also (of benefit to the finished pie) some unripe pears. read more

English Heritage Cherry Tart

By 30 Comments

Once, a very long time ago, I ate a whole bowl of cherries. Not particularly interesting until you find out that not only did I eat the cherries but I ate every single one of the stones too. When you are five years old and take everything your father says as gospel you can imagine the panic, and intrigue, when you’re told that a cherry tree will start to grow in your stomach. It is now some years later and I’m still waiting. Recently I was very lucky to get my hands on some English heritage cherries so I set about baking a heritage cherry tart. read more

Chicken and Chorizo Tartlets

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Chicken and Chorizo Tartlets baked and ready to eat

I’m not very good at anything that requires precision; cutting, gluing, drawing, sewing and the like just aren’t made for me no matter how much I might like them to be. I thought it was time I challenged this, determined to be as perfect as possible I set about making some mini chicken and chorizo tartlets. This of course was not only an excuse to try and achieve the impossible; namely a pastry tart case that didn’t shrink, but also to use up some more of my leftover chicken.

To make four mini tarts you will need: read more


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