All That I'm Eating

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

Sticky Soy Chard

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sticky soy chard

Chard has such a fantastic earthy flavour and I love using it in all sorts of dishes. I used Swiss chard for this recipe but the rainbow variety would work just as well and look fantastic. My Sticky Soy Chard came about because I wanted to treat the chard exactly as I would treat bok choi; covering it in a savoury, sticky glaze. The chard plant itself does have a habit of getting a bit of mud stuck in the leaves so make sure you give it a good wash before you use it.

Ingredients

You will need (for two as a side): read more

Double Chocolate and Orange Cookies

By 23 Comments

After double, these cookies could only be improved by making them triple; perhaps a drizzle or dunk of white chocolate on each. As they stand however, my Double Chocolate and Orange Cookies are just splendid as they are. Especially straight from the oven. The smell as they bake is hard to beat. I like to use dark chocolate when making cookies as sweet as these because I think it adds some welcome bitterness. When it comes to rolling the cookies, for reasons I am not sure of, I always seem to manage to end up with thirteen; a perfect baker’s dozen. read more

Orange and Rosemary Martini

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I’ll stick a herb in pretty much anything and adding or infusing herbs in drinks or cocktails is always delicious. My Orange and Rosemary Martini is particularly excellent for two reasons: first, it uses those fantastic big oranges that you can get at this time of year and second, that faint hint of rosemary is so distinctive it makes for a really refreshing martini. It looks inviting, it’s easy to make and the flavours take the edge of a plain martini (which I can find a bit harsh). This would work really well with leftover rosemary in the back of the fridge, or those sprigs you popped in the freezer. However you make it, and you should, make sure you’ve got a nice comfy chair and a book ready and waiting. read more

Three Easy Soup Toppings with New Covent Garden Soup

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I like to look forward to my lunches; whether I’m using up some leftovers to make a quick salad, sticking all sorts of ingredients in a sandwich or slurping on soup. Sometimes it can be very tempting to just grab the quickest thing in the kitchen but if I do that I am invariably disappointed at lunch time. So say hello to my three easy soup toppings which can all be made in less than five minutes, using ingredients you probably already have and can be made in advance to enjoy at work.

New Covent Garden Soups are currently encouraging everyone to revive their lunch life, something I was really keen to get involved with as I think lunch can make or break a day. Below are my three easy soup toppings and the soups that I chose to serve them with. You can get creative and add any of the toppings to any of the soups and have a go at putting your own twist on them too. read more

Vegetarian Fish and Chips (with Halloumi)

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This is, probably, one of my absolute favourite meals I have ever made. Not only does it look glorious (excuse self-praising) but it is absolutely delicious. A vegetarian fish and chips if you will; a real rival to that classic seaside dish using halloumi instead of fish. With my recipe there is no crispy batter, however, the outside of the halloumi gets all crispy and wonderful so you really don’t miss it. Plus, as there’s no deep fat frying involved it’s much more suited to a weeknight dinner as there’s no faffing around. read more

Lime, Thyme and Quince Gin Cocktail

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Lime, Thyme and Quince Gin Cocktail - ready to drink

I made my quince gin as a way to use some of those delicious fuzzy fruits that grow in the garden. The gin has come out a wonderful, pale canary yellow colour and makes a divine gin and tonic. It is in fact so delicious that it deserved a mix up of its own, something to complement the quince’s distinctive flavour. I love using herbs in drinks and puddings and I wanted to add a botanical twang to this drink. A Lime, Thyme and Quince Gin Cocktail is the way forward. Trust me.

Ingredients

You will need (per drink): read more

Balsamic Roasted Vegetables and Lemon and Black Pepper Cod with Birds Eye

By 18 Comments

When I’m thinking of ways to treat myself in the middle of the week I like to try and make my life as easy as possible. I prefer to make things where everything is cooked together, or use the same tools. For example I would always try to steam any vegetables over potatoes or pasta that I’m cooking, or if I’m roasting something I try to put everything in the oven. That’s what this meal is all about; grabbing a few bits and bobs from around the kitchen and lifting a meal into something delicious. So, instead of going for a standard fillet of fish, I tried the Lemon and Cracked Black Pepper Lightly Dusted Cod from the Birds Eye ‘Inspirations’ range and works so well with sticky balsamic roasted veggies. read more

Quince Gin

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Having put quinces through their baking paces (adding them to crumbles or baking them with honey) I wanted to see how else I could use them. Steeping them with gin seemed like a logical step; the unique flavour of quince I thought would work really well, and it does. I set about making some quince gin and I made a little film about it too. It’s the first film I’ve made and I have a new YouTube channel too, check it out below!

I love the light golden colour that the finished gin has and the delicious, almost tropical taste, the quince gives. This is just the tipple for cold, dark nights with your thickest slippers and a cosy blanket. read more

Bramley Apple and Nut Flapjacks

By 15 Comments

Bramley Apple Flapjacks

I live in a village and on first appearances it has all the qualities of somewhere straight out of Call The Midwife. Actually living there is quite different; people don’t know each others names, good luck trying to get them to take your bins in for you and there’s so much material competition it’s like a car forecourt out there. Of course there are exceptions; one of which is the white house on the corner. They have a Bramley apple tree and although (this year especially) they don’t get many apples from it they always put a box of windfalls outside their gate for people to take. I helped myself to one of their apples and set about making some Bramley apple and nut flapjacks.

Ingredients

You will need (for 8 big flapjacks):

  • 200g butter
  • 175g light muscovado sugar
  • 70g golden syrup
  • 70g honey
  • 350g rolled oats
  • 1 Bramley apple, grated
  • 75g mixed nuts, roughly chopped

Method

Melt the butter, sugar, syrup and honey together in a large pan over a low heat. Make sure it’s all mixed together well.

Add the oats, apple and nuts to the butter mix and stir together to ensure everything is coated in the butter and syrup.

Preheat an oven to 160C. Tip the flapjack mix into a tin.

Note – I used a round, silicone ‘tin’ so I didn’t need to grease it but if you’re using a metal one you might want to lightly grease it before adding the flapjack mix. The larger the tin you use, the crunchier the finished flapjack so choose your tin on your flapjack preference!

Bake the flapjack for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and mark into pieces. Leave to cool before removing from the tin.

Originally I wanted to make these flapjacks with cobnuts (wild hazelnuts) but there don’t seem to be many around this year, or the squirrels have got to them all. If you do have some of your own I think they’d be fantastic added to this mix. These flapjacks are perfect at this time of year; they are so autumnal I couldn’t imagine making them in any other month. The Bramley apple adds a little bit of sharpness and a slight cakey texture and the mixed nuts bring a delicious crunch; the ones on the top get lovely and toasted during baking too. If you don’t have a village supply of Bramleys to help yourself to, there are plenty of wild apples around at the moment which would certainly be worth a try.

Lemon Iced Tea

By 19 Comments

Lemon Iced Tea - ingredients

Sometimes I make something for the first time and I wonder why it’s taken me so long to get round to it. Iced tea is one of my favourite drinks, especially lemon iced tea, but other than a passion fruit and jasmine version I concocted a few years ago I’ve not made my own since. I wanted to make some to take on a recent picnic as I thought it would be nice and refreshing in the late summer sun. Considering this only uses three ingredients, I used the very best ones I could: all organic and the tea I used had the wonderfully, British, charming name ‘Georgian Old Gentleman’.

Ingredients

You will need (for around 500ml):

  • 3 tsp loose tea leaves
  • 3 thick slices of lemon (organic if you can, otherwise you get a faint oiliness on the top of the tea when the wax melts off the lemon rind)
  • 2 dsp caster sugar (organic if you can so it’s unrefined for a delicious caramel taste)

Method

Start by making the tea. Put three nice big teaspoons of tea into a pot (or heatproof jug) and add 500ml boiling water. Leave to steep for around five minutes before removing the tea leaves.

I have a snazzy teapot which makes the above stage very easy: I simply remove the middle of the teapot which contains the tea leaves. If you don’t have one of these just strain the tea through a sieve or tea strainer into another jug or teapot.

Add the lemon and leave everything until it has cooled.

Remove the lemon slices then stir in the sugar until it’s dissolved.

Cool in the fridge and then serve over ice. Or, as I did, pour it into a Thermos to keep cool and take it on a picnic.It was as refreshing as I hoped it would be and it had the most fantastic unique twang because of the tea that I had used. Just the ticket to sip while sat on a log enjoying a picnic. I’ll definitely be playing around with different fruits and teas to experiment with lots of different flavours. I can’t believe how ridiculously simple it was to make; why has it taken me so long to make it again? I love that you can add the amount of lemon, tea and sugar that suits you. The recipe above is much less sweet than ready made iced teas that you can by, and that’s how I like it.

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