All That I'm Eating

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

Broad Beans and Goat’s Cheese on Toast

By 24 Comments

broad beans on toast
Things on toast, no matter whether they are cheese, beans or mushrooms make a fantastic, easy and fast dinner. I think something on toast has a humble feel about it; it’s simple and satisfying. However, humble doesn’t have to be hum drum. I had a pile of broad beans and had bought some soft goat’s cheese for another meal, but, after a hectic day I wanted something quick and filling: beans on toast. Well, sort of.

Ingredients

You will need (for two slices):

  • 2 large handfuls of broad beans in the pod
  • 2 spring onions
  • A few sprigs of basil
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • Soft goat’s cheese
  • 2 slices of good quality white bread

Method

Start by removing the beans from their pods. When you have a pile of pale green beans, put them into some lightly salted boiling water for around four minutes.
Drain the beans when cooked and then run them under cold water to stop them cooking. When they have cooled down, remove the grey skins from each bean. It sounds like effort but it’s honestly just a quick insertion of a finger nail on one side and a gentle squeeze on the other. They just pop right out.

Finely chop the spring onions and roughly chop the basil. In a bowl mix together the beans, spring onions, basil, olive oil and a little salt and pepper.
Toast the bread and then spread the goat’s cheese thickly onto each slice and top with the bean mixture. read more

Hot Cucumbers with Wet Garlic and Chilli

By 30 Comments

hot cucumbers with garlic and chilli
I don’t like to be rude but sometimes a cucumber can be a pain in the backside. What do you DO with it? Yes it’s very nice quartered and added to a salad; occasionally I go somewhat exotic and fork the edges of the cucumber before adding it, it’s terribly exciting. I have wanted to try a chilled cucumber soup and also thin slices with a little salt, sugar and sherry vinegar but every so often I find myself simply wanting to use the cucumber for jousting. You may wonder why, if I have so many qualms with the cucumber, I keep on finding them in my fridge. When you get a vegetable box delivered it is inevitable that you will end up with things you always prepare the same way. Not anymore, my culinary cucumber monotony needed to be broken.

Ingredients

You will need (for two as a side):

  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 wet garlic stalk
  • 2 red chillies
  • A few fresh chives
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Butter (or use olive oil to make it vegan)

Method

Peel the cucumber and then cut into sticks; I got 12 sticks from mine. Melt a big knob of butter in a pan on a medium heat and add the cucumber. While the cucumber softens slice the wet garlic thinly and then add this to the pan with the cucumber.

Keep stirring everything in the pan until the cucumber and garlic are starting to brown; the cucumber is surprisingly strong and doesn’t break down.

While you’re waiting slice the chillies and chop up the chives. For the final minute or so of cooking add a few of the chillies, the chives and some salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and serve with the remaining raw chillies. read more

Creamy Mushrooms and Wild Garlic on Brioche Toast

By 27 Comments

wild garlic
Foraging for food is something I have started to do over the last few years. Hunting down blackberry bushes in the autumn is something I’ve always done but I’ve never considered it to be ‘foraging’. To me, proper foraging involves a wicker basket, curiously shaped knives and an innate ability to avoid thorns and nettles. Since I started to appreciate the other things that can be found outdoors I have added other wild foods to my repertoire: rosehips, sloes, plums, strawberries, elderflower and now, at last, wild garlic. Somehow this most pungent of wild foods has eluded me until a few days ago when I finally found an abundance of it not a ten minute walk from my house. Creamy mushrooms and wild garlic sounded just perfect for lunch and even better on brioche toast.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 250g mushrooms
  • 150ml single cream
  • 16 small leaves wild garlic, roughly chopped
  • Salt and pepper
  • Butter
  • Brioche, two slices

Method

Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan on a medium heat and fry the onion for at least 15 minutes or until starting to turn golden at the edges. Increase the heat, you may need to add some extra butter, then add the mushrooms.

Fry the mushrooms until they are golden and sticky before turning down the heat to low and stirring in the cream. Simmer the cream, stirring occasionally, until it’s reduced then add the wild garlic and some salt and pepper.

Turn the heat off and let the garlic infuse with the cream while you slice and toast the brioche. Serve the mushrooms atop the brioche. read more

Chard and Smoked Bacon Open Lasagne with Basil Oil

By 28 Comments

chard and bacon lasagne
I think everyone has a particular vegetable that they always end up cooking the same way. I simply couldn’t have another plate of steamed or stir fried chard so I put my thinking cap on and set about making a chard and bacon lasagne. I also realised maybe chard isn’t the only vegetable I haven’t paid much attention to. Whenever I have leeks around they normally end up in a slow cooked pork stew; namely because I don’t really like leeks and I can’t taste them as much this way. Courgettes are another example (and I’m sure the bane of many vegetable gardeners’ lives) and they almost always end up as fritters. To avoid characterless chard this simple open lasagne is perfect.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 8-10 rashers smoked streaky bacon
  • 1 head chard
  • 2 large garlic cloves
  • 250ml crème fraîche
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3 sheets fresh lasagne
  • Small handful basil
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Small handful Parmesan

Method

Start by cutting the bacon into small strips and put into a frying pan with a little oil. Get the bacon frying while you prepare the chard.

Strip the chard leaves away from the stalks and put in to two separate piles. Slice the chard stalks to roughly the same size as the bacon and shred the leaves.

When the bacon is turning golden brown add the chard stalks to the pan and fry for a few minutes until the stalks have softened. Crush in the garlic and then add the chard leaves. Fry for another minute or so until the leaves have started to wilt and then add the crème fraîche, plenty of pepper and a little salt. Keep cooking this, stirring occasionally, until you have a thick sauce. read more

Spelt and Dark Chocolate Pancakes with Yoghurt and Honey

By 21 Comments

spelt chocolate pancakes
When the weather gets like this there is only one way to improve the situation; to fill your belly with buttery things. More specifically spelt and chocolate pancakes. It seems to have been raining forever recently! Each time I glance out of the window there is never even a peep of blue sky and hardly any bright daffodils to remind me it is in fact Spring. But no matter, I have honey at the ready.  Perhaps not the healthiest advice to give, a more svelte person might suggest a nice jog in the park but it wouldn’t quite cut the mustard for me. No, when my fingers are still blue in March I need chocolate and sticky sweet things. That’s where these Spelt and Dark Chocolate Pancakes fit in nicely. Rachel’s Organic sent me some Greek Yoghurt with Honey to try and I thought it would work nicely with these pancakes.

Ingredients

You will need (for around 16 pancakes):

  • 200g spelt flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 40g caster sugar
  • 20g melted butter, plus extra for cooking
  • 1 egg
  • 275ml milk
  • 40g dark chocolate chips
  • Yoghurt with honey to serve

Method

Start by sieving the flour, baking powder and sugar into a large bowl.

In a separate bowl mix together the melted butter, egg and milk until well combined. Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture and add the chocolate chips. Give everything a good stir to make sure it is well incorporated.

Heat a little knob of butter in a frying pan until it just starts to foam and then drop the pancake mixture in using around 2 tbsp of the batter for each pancake.

Fry the pancakes until they are golden brown before flipping them over and cooking the other side. Don’t be tempted to flip too early as you could end up with miserable looking pancake. read more

Double Sausage, Cheese and Egg Muffin

By 20 Comments

sausage cheese and egg muffin
What’s your guilty pleasure? I have to confess I very much enjoy a particular sausage, cheese and egg muffin from a well known fast food restaurant. I know, shameful. However I am admitting it now as part of trying to cleanse my system. I liked the idea behind the aforementioned muffin; a sausage and egg sandwich really. In order to still enjoy this behemoth breakfast (without the guilt) I needed to try and make my own version. Not only was I going to attempt to fill my guilty pleasure gap I was going to improve on the original.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 4 cumberland burgers
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 thick slices of mild cheddar cheese
  • 2 muffins

Method

I was lucky to be able to get these cumberland burgers from the farmers’ market and without them it wouldn’t have been the same. I reckon you could make cumberland burgers if you can’t get them by squeezing the sausage meat out of some nice sausages and making burger shapes.

Start by frying the burgers until brown on the outside and cooked through. Meanwhile get another pan on the heat to fry the egg in. I fried my egg inside an upside down pastry cutter so it was the same size as the muffin. Maybe a bit unnecessary but I didn’t want odd shaped egg white hanging out of my muffin; it would have ruined the effect! When the egg is almost ready and the yolk still gooey get the muffins toasting. read more

Alternative Blueberry Muffins

By 19 Comments

Alternative Blueberry Muffins - close up
I’m not sure what has happened. I have turned from overindulging at dinner to starting the day on luxurious breakfasts. I’ve gone from pies to porridge. I suppose that this is the time of year where it’s nice to be able to (even if only sometimes) sit outside and enjoy that first meal of the day. There are plenty of glorious contenders to do this with: Eggs Benedict, a full English, pancakes with maple syrup and simple, but wonderful, toast with butter and jam. Now, I can also add these alternative blueberry muffins into the mix.

I don’t know about you but I have certainly started the day on a blueberry muffin if I’m out and about and in a rush. Muffins seem to have taken over coffee shops and bakers, I can’t remember the last time I went somewhere where a muffin wasn’t an option. Usually purchased in a cellophane wrapper and inevitably disappointing I wanted to make my own blueberry muffins. Not the cake type muffin though. The unrivalled blueberry flavour was essential but with something crunchy; a breakfast to take your time over. I made an easy blueberry sauce for these however it would also be worth having a go at making some blueberry jam. read more

Peas, Broad Beans and Feta with Roasted Tomato and Chilli Sauce

By 24 Comments

Peas, Broad Beans and Feta with Roasted Tomato and Chilli Sauce - All That I'm Eating
This is almost the meal that changed my life: broad beans and feta. Until a few years ago I considered any food that wasn’t plain boiled pasta disgusting. I was completely disinterested in anything that wasn’t beige and flavourless. I went to University and had to start fending for myself so a few more exciting things crept into my culinary repertoire; a little melted butter on my pasta for example. I know, exotic. 

I suppose I was what you would call a late flavour bloomer; I think my olfactorary centre and taste buds started to develop with my wisdom teeth. Indeed not only had I grown some physical wisdom I also had some previous culinary knowledge on which to build, and now, more teeth to eat things with. I have always cooked; biscuits with my Granny, cakes and pastry with my Mum and barbeques with my Dad but it wasn’t until 2008 that I really started to experiment. 

At University you become extremely good at procrastination. One of my favourite time wasters was trawling the internet looking for cookbooks. For someone who found flavour offensive I had a pretty large collection of cookery books; I found great pleasure in cooking for others things that I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. I came across a particular cookery book that sounded pretty good to me; it was over 500 pages long which is a lot of bedtime reading. I ordered it.
What I didn’t know when I ordered it was that it was a book about vegetables; pages and pages of green, red, orange and purple things which were all alien to me but they were organised alphabetically so I liked that. There was one particular recipe that caught my eye, mostly because it seemed cheap. It was green beans with roasted tomatoes. I made it and the textures and flavours were like nothing I’d ever had; the beans were still slightly crunchy and squeaked when you chewed them, the tomatoes were sweet but also acidic. I probably ate more beans at that moment that I had ever eaten cumulatively in my life before. read more

Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Garlic Infused Olive Oil and Parmesan Pasta

By 18 Comments

Purple sprouting broccoli has to be one of my favourite vegetables. Its arrival on my plate with the warmer weather tells me that in a few weeks time I will be enjoying asparagus. It’s delicate appearance and slightly sweet taste is brilliant with so many foods. I like mine nice and simple; with copious amounts of garlic infused oil and coronary shattering piles of Parmesan.  read more

Delicate Carrot Soup

By 10 Comments

homegrown carrots

Sometimes carrots can be taken for granted. The base of a soup or stew, added to stock or shoved on the side of the plate. What a shame. They are such glorious things in their own right and there is no carrot sweeter than a home grown carrot. I planted these little beauties a few months back expecting them to be riddled with carrot fly and a complete disaster. The results have been quite the opposite. I am now inundated.

Before you ask, the one second from right is not a parsnip, it is a white carrot. The two on each end are orange and the other is a yellow carrot. I didn’t know what a rainbow I had underground until I pulled them up.
Whether you’re using home grown or bought carrots, a lovely subtle carrot soup has to be the way to go. Carrot soup is one of my favourite soups but the carrots can sometimes be overshadowed with what they are paired with. Sometimes coriander can be a little too much or the orange overwhelms the humble sweet carrot flavours. Not this time though. read more

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