All That I'm Eating

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

New Things in My Kitchen – Feb 2017

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Coconut Chilli Meal Pot

Anything that offers me something a bit different for lunch at work or breakfast in a hurry is always welcome in my kitchen. I’ve been trying out a few new things this year; food and books and I’ve been pretty impressed with a few things I hadn’t tried before. So here’s the latest round up of new things in my kitchen.

Coconut Chilli make a range of these meal pots and all of them sound as good as each other. As I prefer to keep my lunches vegetarian I tried the Mooli & Lentil Sambhar. You can see how fresh the ingredients are; the coriander looked like it had just been picked, it felt almost as if I had assembled the pot myself. The flavour was fantastic; well spiced, a little chilli heat and full of veg and pulses. The amount of rice was generous and I was really full afterwards, but full of good stuff. The reason I particularly liked this pot was that it gave you instructions for cooking in the microwave and cooking on the hob, always good if you don’t have a microwave! You can order Coconut Chilli online, 4 large pots and 6 small pots are £61 (delivery not included). read more

It’s All Easy Cookbook

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When I get a new cookbook I feel it deserves some quality time to be looked over and thumbed through. Normally with a nice cup of tea. I was really looking forward to taking some time to read through the It’s All Easy Cookbook by Gwyneth Paltrow. The title got my interest first; a whole book full of easy recipes. It sounded right up my street! The photography in the book is lovely; the emphasis is on lifestyle rather than just food and I think that makes it easier to see how the recipes might fit in your day to day life. Gwyneth Paltrow wrote the book and recipes along with Thea Baumann and there are some great ideas in there that I can see appearing on my kitchen table. read more

The Part Time Vegetarian Book

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If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen some of the weekly meal plans I put up. I can’t live without a meal plan; I think I would implode. As I find them so useful, my thinking is that other people may find them handy or take some inspiration from them. Looking at how my meal planning has changed and what I choose to eat now there has been a real shift in my kitchen and I now eat vegetarian meals four (and often more) times a week and I’m always looking for new vegetarian recipes to try out. read more

One Pot Cook Book

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As far as I am concerned food that can be prepared in one pot is most welcome in my kitchen. I’ll let you into a secret, although I feel it is one shared by many, I hate washing and drying up. And we don’t have a dishwasher. Anything that minimises time spent at the sink is a friend of mine. Don’t be misled, the One Pot Cook Book contains far more than just: chuck it in, lid on, in the oven. At the same time not everything in the book takes ages to cook; it’s not a 15 minute meal solution either but somewhere wholesome in between. read more

Crussh Book

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The idea of smoothies and juices I really like; getting the nutrients (with or without the fibrous parts) in a convenient way really appeals. Not least because it gives me something to do with a fridge full of vegetables other than soup. The only thing that puts me off is the thought I needed another piece of kitchen equipment to be able to make my own. The publishers of Crussh, Nourish Books, got in touch to see if I’d like to try out the new book. I asked if a juicer was necessary and they said it wasn’t so I was looking forward to giving one of the recipes a try. read more

Brew It Yourself Book

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Brew It Yourself Book

When I heard about Brew It Yourself I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. I have made a few infusions in my time, almost always involving gin, so I was looking forward to seeing what Richard Hood and Nick Moyle (aka Two Thirsty Gardeners) had put in their book. It’s been a while since I’ve opened a book up and not known which bit to look at or which recipe to try first but everything in Brew It Yourself sounds so tempting and completely achievable.

It’s a good sized book, which may sound a little odd, by which I mean it’s not too bulky but includes plenty of information and recipes. It’s divided into the following sections: read more

Review: What to Bake and How to Bake It. Buttermilk Pound Cake

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What to Bake and How to Bake it book

I was sent What to Bake and How to Bake It to review and I was really looking forward to having a flick through the pages to see what to bake. I knew it would be a fab book from the quick look I initially had but I wasn’t quite expecting it to be such the joy that it was. The quirky cover makes it stand out amongst the other books on my shelves and I liked the colours and illustrations. There are two key things I noticed about the book which I love: firstly, Jane provides pictures right at the start showing you exactly what butter and sugar look like when perfectly creamed (and if they’re over beaten) amongst other techniques, secondly, she doesn’t assume you have a microwave. I don’t have a microwave and it’s amazing how many cookery books assume you have one (I think I’m in the minority but still!). The book is published by Phaidon and they kindly said I could publish one of the recipes so I tried my hand at the Buttermilk Pound Cake. read more

Malted Chocolate Biscuits

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Malted Chocolate Biscuits - All That I'm Eating (2)
This recipe comes from a book which is very special to me; it is called Chocolate and was written by Jacqueline Bellefontaine. In case you didn’t know I never really used to like food. I loved cooking and seeing other people enjoy my efforts (whether out of politeness or genuinely) but I would never try anything different. When it came to baking that was a different matter and I would eat and bake anything. One birthday, I guess I was maybe 12 or 13, my Granny gave me this book and I just didn’t know what to make first. I’ve never had a bad recipe from it, the brownies are to die for and it’s my go to book when I need to bake. These malted chocolate biscuits are just brilliant and so simple to make.

ingredients

This recipe is on page 122 of the book.
You will need (I made 8 slices):

  • 100g butter
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 2 tbsp malted chocolate drink (I used just malted i.e. Horlicks)
  • 225g malted milk biscuits
  • 75g milk chocolate (you can also use dark)
  • 25g icing sugar
  • 2 tbsp milk

Method

Grease and line a cake tin; mine was an 18cm loose bottomed one.

Put the butter, golden syrup and malted drink into a saucepan and heat gently until the mixture is well combined. I find when the butter melts at first it looks a bit separated but keep stirring and it will come together and be thick and glossy.

Bash up the malted milk biscuits until you have crumbs then mix these into the butter mixture.

Press the mixture down well in the cake tin. read more

Review: Easy Indian Cookbook by Manju Malhi

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murgh makhani
Spices in food have always made me curious. I like all spices, those that I’ve tried anyway, and a little bit of fresh or dried chilli is always welcome when spices are around. When I’ve attempted making a spiced dish before it’s always lead to interesting results. The ras-el-hanout I add to lamb is great, the fajitas are good but I am normally disappointed if I try to make a curry. The flavour never seems deep enough; too much of one thing and not enough of something else. Manju Malhi asked me to review her Easy Indian Cookbook published by Duncun Baird, so I thought I’d have one last attempt and try out her recipe for Murgh Makhani.

ingredients

The below recipe is from Manju’s book with a few of my own tweaks.
For Murgh Makhani for two you will need:

  • 50g peeled plum tomatoes
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tbsp. natural yoghurt
  • 1 tbsp. double cream
  • Black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp paprika
  • 1 small dried chilli, ground
  • Pinch ground cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp. rapeseed oil
  • 250g chicken breast pieces
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • Salt
  • 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
  • Knob of butter
  • Pinch garam masala

The below recipe for flatbreads is from Jamie Oliver and it makes fantastic cheat’s naan breads!

For 6 cheat’s naan breads you will need:

  • 250g self raising flour plus extra for dusting
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1/2 tbsp. baking powder
  • 250g natural yoghurt
Blend the tomatoes until smooth and put to one side. Put the chicken into a bowl and add the garlic, yoghurt, cream, a nice helping of black pepper, paprika, chilli, cinnamon and 1 tbsp. of the oil and mix everything together really well. Refrigerate this for at least 30 minutes but ideally overnight. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat and add the remaining oil. Fry the onions until golden brown then add the salt and dried fenugreek and fry for a few more minutes. Add the tomatoes to the onions and keep cooking until thickened. Add a small knob of butter to the pan then add the chicken and all the marinade, reduce the heat to low and simmer for around 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Add the garam masala and serve with rice and the easy naans. To make the cheat’s naan breads mix together all the ingredients in a bowl until well combined. You might need to add a little extra flour if the mixture is looking a little wet. Put some extra flour onto the worktop and divide the mixture into six. Get a frying pan on a high heat. Roll out the dough so it’s quite thin and then dry fry the breads until they puff up a little, turn them over and cook until each one is cooked through and has some nice brown patches all over. It takes less than two minutes per flatbread.

I can safely say, hand down, that this is the best curry I’ve ever made.  The level of spice and chilli was perfect for me and I loved the creamy taste even though the actual quantity of cream and butter was very small. Guilt free! I think next time I would double the quantity of the sauce for the same amount of chicken. I really like this book, the pictures are clean and simple and the recipes easy to follow. The recipes are certainly a step up from other ‘easy’ recipes (which are only easy because they require you to open a jar of paste) but you’re not cooking and preparing for hours either. There’s a good balance between meat, fish and vegetable curries too. I will definitely be cooking from this book again; the only problem being which recipe to choose!
Thank you to Manju for the book and for permission to print one of her lovely recipes. read more

An Old Cookery Book

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old cookery book title

I was given The Glasgow Cookery Book a few months ago; I’m a sucker for an old and worn book and everyone knows it. I put it to one side to have a look at later and forgot about it until more recently. An old book that smells like it should deserves a proper going over and a nice cup of tea. I sat down to enjoy a flick through the aged pages and got a lot more than I bargained for.

I was hoping to find an interesting recipe that had perhaps been forgotten about or a take on something I make regularly. What I found instead was a myriad of lists, scribbles, notes, pieces of paper, recipe cards and more. The picture below is the inside front cover which is plastered in words and phrases, for example, ‘Russian Fill Pie’ or ‘Grilled Kidneys’ amongst others. read more


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