All That I'm Eating

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

Purple Carrot Soup

By 9 Comments

ingredients for purple carrot soup
Wandering around a market with cash and a cornucopia of fruit and vegetables it’s hard to resist buying. I made a most excellent choice as far as I’m concerned and parted with my pennies in exchange for a majestic purple carrot. For something that I find as rarely as this I wanted to make the most of it without detracting from the magnificent root itself. Carrot soup was to be lunch.

Ingredients

What you will need (for two bowls):

  • 2 large carrots (2 purple if you can get them)
  • Butter
  • Chicken or vegetable stock 400ml
  • Garlic clove
  • Coriander seeds 1tsp
  • Fresh coriander
  • Creme fraiche
  • Seasoning

Method

If you ever manage to get hold of these little beauties, my advice would be to never boil them. Not only does it turn everything else a strange browny purple colour it also takes all the colour out of the carrots.

As I only had change for the one purple carrot I added an orange one too. For the soup, fry the carrots and garlic in a nice hearty sized knob of butter. Put the lid on them and let them soften.

While they do this, dry fry a teaspoon of coriander seeds until they jump around the frying pan and are good and toasted. read more

Quince and Apple Crumble – adventures with the quince

By 13 Comments

apples and quince
The quince used to be a hidden fruit. It seems it was embarrassed of its furry skin, ever varying sizes and odd looks. I had heard rumours of it returning to its former glory and I kept my eyes peeled and nostrils ready for a sight or a whiff of this mysterious fruit.  I found it. If you have not ever been lucky enough to encounter the quince then scrap any plans this weekend and go and hunt some down. It looks like a pear, is tough like a pumpkin, fuzzy like a peach and smells like a guava crossed with a passion fruit. It’s a cheeky fruit that would cheer up even the most dampened spirits. I wanted to make the most of this fruit. Very resourcefully I had frozen some apples that were given to us a while ago and for which I had no use at the time. I made a crumble, it is the season for them after all.

Ingredients

What you will need (for four large servings):
  • Quinces – I had 2
  • Apples – I had 1 big one
  • Knob of butter
  • Good portion of caster sugar
  • Bowl of water with lemon juice in
  • 175g flour
  • 75g butter
  • 50g light muscavado sugar
  • Almonds and oats for the top

Method

I have never come across anything that will brown as quickly as a quince. It’s quite impressive. You will need to super speed peel the quinces and put them in the lemon infused water. Even then don’t be surprised at how quickly they change colour. When chopped, put them in a pan with the butter and the sugar. 
I would say don’t go too sweet as some of the charm of the quince is in its astringency. I added the frozen apples right at the end so they didn’t turn to a mush.

I put this in a small dish so that when it was served, everyone got a good dose of quince. I then crumbled. Rub the butter into the flour and then stir in the sugar. By putting it into a small dish it ensures no one will be short of crumble either. 
I put some crushed almonds and oats on the top too. read more

Buttered Toffee Apple Crumble

By 14 Comments

cooking apples for crumble

When one suffers from less than optimal circulation in the extremities, they certainly know when the days are shortening and the evenings cooling. To rectify this and to warm the cockles there was only one thing for it. Apple crumble.

Not just any apple crumble but one which I had discussed with my Grandmother just hours before. “Oooh, the other day I saw someone put butter and sugar into the apples for a crumble. It did look nice”. I took this little gem as gospel and went crumbling about.

Ingredients

What you will need (for four large servings):
  • 6 to 8 large apples
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 150g sugar – muscavado or demerara
  • Dried fruits – a handful of any you want to include
  • 175g flour
  • 75g butter
  • 50g caster sugar
  • Handful of demerara/muscavado for the top
  • Flaked almonds – if you want them, as many as you deem fit

Start by putting the apples, unsalted butter and devilishly dark sugar in a pan. Let it bubble and goop away until it reaches the consistency that you think is best. Then mix in any dried fruits that you are using.

Put this mixture in to a suitable oven proof dish and then crumble away. Rub the butter and flour together until you get the texture of fine breadcrumbs. I start by using a knife and then move on to using hands. Stir in the caster sugar and then sprinkle the best bit (crumble) on the top.   read more

Classic Toad in the Hole with Onion Gravy

By 15 Comments

toad in the hole, onion gravy, mashed potatoes and broccoli

It’s been getting colder, the days getting shorter and the need for all things comforting increasing. I went to the butcher and managed to get hold of some local recipe sausages. Toad in the Hole would be it. With some gravy and mash. Proper British.

Ingredients

What you will need (for two)
Sausages of your choice
1/2 pint of milk
120g flour
3 eggs
Pinch of salt and pepper
2 onions
2 garlic cloves
90ml balsamic vinegar
Thyme
Stock cube

Method

I started off by frying my sausages and made the batter while they were cooking. I find the best way for Yorkshire pudding batter is to put it all in a bowl and whisk furiously. It’ll all come right in the end. I was also clever enough to plan ahead, pre-heat the oven as hot as it would go and heat some oil in a dish. read more

Plum Bakewell Tart

By 6 Comments

What a strange time of year. As a newbie to vegetable gardening and being too distracted by pride with what had been successful, I missed the band wagon and subsequently planted nothing else this year. Curses. All was not lost! A friend of mine with superfluous plums was kind enough to give us a bag full. What to do with that many plums…I consulted my various books and found a recipe I had written out by hand. I’ve no idea where it came from originally but what a recipe it was; Plum Bakewell Tart. read more

Carrot Cake

By 11 Comments

Carrot Cake with orange zest icing

After spending my Sunday trying to resist everything I clapped my searching eyes on at my local farmers market, I ended up buying hundreds of carrots. How could I say no to a bunch just picked and two for £1 purple cauliflower? Either way I am now inundated with these sweet orange roots and so I consulted several recipe books and decided a carrot cake was the order of the day. They all asked for different things so I picked out what I thought were the best bits and tried it out.

Ingredients

What you will need:
3 eggs
275g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
200ml mild olive oil
75g dark muscavado sugar
175g light muscavado sugar
150g carrots
juice of one small orange read more

Broad Bean Omelette

By 4 Comments

Fresh broad beans

To tell you nowt but the truth, my broad beans have been nothing short of prolific. I cannot urge you enough to throw a few broad beans in the ground and watch them develop. They are so nutty and so so green. There’s nothing like picking a few pods and whiling away a few moments popping the little guys out of their silk lined beds. I really enjoy squeezing them out of their old grey skins once cooked. Unless I’m in a rush.

Despite all the care and affection I have given my beans I did manage to whip up some delectable meals and snacks. The first one (apart from eating a few raw off the stalk) was an omelette that I threw some of my emerald delights into. To start, I satisfyingly took the beans out of their homes. read more

Strawberry Ice Cream

By 3 Comments

ingredients for homemade strawberry ice cream

It has been such a busy time recently. As you may note, not even a tiny snippet of bloggage crossed my keyboard in the whole of July. Not for lack of wanting to but for a lack of time! During the hectic haphazardry that ensued I did manage to whip up a few culinary delights. And so to begin… Strawberry Ice Cream.

Ingredients

What you will need (for enough for 4-6 people):
600g strawberries, stemmed and sliced
4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
330g granulated sugar
330ml milk
600ml double cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract read more

Caramel Shortbread

By 10 Comments

I fancied making some shortbread and in my quest I stumbled across an interesting variation of this classic. It was in James Martin’s book entitled ‘Desserts’ (see link below). I love this book, the recipes are so easy to follow and are always yummy. He calls this particular recipe ‘Grandma’s caramel shortbread’ and I am so grateful she shared this recipe with him so I was lucky enough to be able to make and eat it.

Ingredients

What you will need:

397g can of condensed milk read more

Gateau à la Crème

By 8 Comments

This classic French dessert sounds so impressive but it’s so easy to make and I didn’t have a food processor with a dough hook either! I used my hand mixer and it did the job perfectly. Raymond Blanc made this recently on the television and I was determined to give it a go. Don’t be put off by the bountiful amounts of butter and the gargantuan number of eggs. It’s a treat and so worth the effort.

Ingredients

What you will need (for a Gateau à la Crème and a brioche loaf):

For the brioche dough
500g strong plain flour
A few pinches sea salt
4 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp yeast
7 free-range eggs
300g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

For the crème filling
6 free-range egg yolks
60g caster sugar
1 lemon, juice and zest
250ml crème fraîche

For the glaze
2 free-range egg yolks
1 tbsp caster sugar
25g/¾oz butter, cut into cubes read more


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