All That I'm Eating

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

New Potato, Green Bean and Iberico Salad

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new potato green bean and iberico ham salad
When I go out and there is a charcuterie board on offer I struggle to turn it down. I find cured meat fascinating and it’s one of my absolute favourite indulgences. One of my top five would have to be Iberico ham. I can’t get enough of it although my waist and bank balance would probably encourage me to eat a bit less. I like to make an expensive ingredient go as far as possible so this Spanish inspired potato salad is an attempt to do exactly that.

More and more I am cooking Spanish food and dishes. It’s a cuisine I have dabbled in while dining out but not one that I am terribly experienced in; I’ve made a few paellas and tapas in my time but I’d like to delve deeper and cook some more unusual meals in the future. This dinner was a bit of a hodge podge mix of ingredients but it worked wonderfully well.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):
  • 500g small new potatoes (I used Jersey Royals), scrubbed
  • Small handful green beans, sliced in inch sized pieces
  • As much Iberico ham as you can spare
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Sherry vinegar
  • 1 small garlic clove
  • Salt and pepper

Method

This is a throw it together really simple recipe. Put the potatoes into cold salted water and bring the potatoes to the boil. When the potatoes are almost cooked, add the beans into the same water for the last 2 or 3 minutes of cooking. In the meantime mix together three parts oil to one part vinegar (make extra if you have some spare bread to dip in afterwards) then crush the garlic clove in and add the salt and pepper. When the potatoes and beans are cooked, drain them and pour the dressing over to warm through. Serve up and top with the Iberico ham.

It’s such a simple meal but it delivers so much flavour. Earthy potatoes, sweet beans, sharp dressing and creamy Iberico ham make each mouthful different in flavour and texture. It took around fifteen minutes from start to finish and with a nice glass of wine makes a delicious, quick Friday night dinner. Well with a bit of imagination you could be on the Andalucian coast. read more

Sticky Toffee and Date Cake from Baked In

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sticky toffee and date cake with toffee sauce and cream
Back in July I was at a food festival and got talking to a company called Baked In. They sell the dried ingredients you need to make a cake, all pre-weighed and ready to go. They asked me if I’d like to give one of their mixes a try, the sticky toffee and date was calling out to me so I grabbed a bag and headed off looking forward to putting on my apron. Since then we have had some very lovely hot weather and baking on a hot day wasn’t appealing to me; I’d much rather be outside in the sun. Last week however there was a rainy day last week which was the perfect time to get baking!

Ingredients

You will need (for one finished cake):

  • 1 sticky toffee and date cake mix
  • 1 egg
  • 125g unsalted butter
  • 175ml boiling water

Method

The instructions were really easy to follow and the kit contained everything including a butter measurer, a skewer to test doneness and baking paper. It smells lovely when you open the bag too thanks to the fresh vanilla in the sugar.

You start by greasing and lining a 20cm x 20cm tin and preheating the oven. The pre-weighed dates are mixed with boiling water to soften them. The sugar is mixed with butter before the flour is added. The egg and date mix is added after that. I’ve not made a cake with that method before but it worked a treat and was really easy to mix up. This goes into the oven for around 30 minutes. read more

Paprika Topside of Beef with Roasted Garlic Mash and Peas and Onions

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fried topside of beef with roasted garlic mashed potatoes peas and onions allthatimeating (3 of 4)
I wrote on my blog a little while back that humble doesn’t have to be hum drum and it got me thinking. Can I make what might be considered a luxury into a cheap, and hopefully humble, meal. Steak, for me at least, is considered an expensive luxury; it’s not something I buy on a regular basis. It is however something I enjoy and it was about time I tried a cheaper cut to see if it could cut the mustard.

Enter my knowledgeable butcher. I had heard that hanger (or onglet) steak was a cheap alternative that is normally used for slow cooking. Unfortunately there was no hanger available as it was all frozen, but not to worry, as I was assured that a few slices of topside would be a good substitute. My butcher took off a few thick steaks from the topside and butterflied them for me, I couldn’t wait to give it a try. The topside came in at £12.95 per kg whereas sirloin would have been £24.50 per kg. read more

Damson Gin with Lemon and Lime

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damson gin

It’s nice to have a cupboard full of foraged wares. Currently I am housing sloe port made with sloes that were steeping in gin for two years, a nine month damson gin and I am now using the gin soaked damsons to kick off a batch of damson port. I’ve been busy. As nice as it is to sip the damson gin like a thin fruity syrup it’s also nice to be able to jazz it up sometimes.

After nine months of steeping the damson gin has come out a glorious, deep, rich red colour and it is asking to be made into a long drink. This is my perfect summer evening tipple. If I don’t have lemonade in the house it is just as good with a bit of tonic. It doesn’t look fancy, it’s not got any frills but when it tastes this good and fresh it doesn’t need any. read more

Greengage and Almond Ice Cream

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Greengage and Almond Ice Cream
When I planted my goldengage tree it was more out of curiosity and fascination than potential fruit volume. The fruit that I cannot get elsewhere or the rarer varieites are those that I chose to plant. My goldengage is in its second year and it produced seven fruits. I picked the two ripest and quartered them to share so that we could all enjoy a slice of this evasive plum. It was the most honeyed and nectarous of all the plums I had ever had. My quince is in its third year and has thus far given me nothing. Both trees have given me a wonderful blossom but with the weather and what not this hasn’t been my year. Perhaps I am a little strange but I like to think my trees have personalities. The old apple tree is always top of the class; plenty of fruit but none that is particularly flavoursome. The apples are meant for pies and crumbles not really for eating. My goldengage seems to be the one that always tries really hard but makes a few mistakes. The quince seems to be a stubborn brute but you just know that when it does fruit there’ll be more than I know what to do with.

I am very fortunate that my local greengrocer shares my passion for the slightly unusual. They can’t go too far into the bizarre for fear of scaring away all their customers but they do try to get quinces, medlars, mulberries and the like. The lady who runs the shop is almost more enthusiastic than me about greengages. She has tried to get the golden but they are rarer than anything. I will happily settle for green if golden isn’t around. And for the perfect summer dessert my Greengage and Almond Ice Cream is just the ticket. 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

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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

Redcurrant and White Chocolate Muffins (or Cupcakes)

By 22 Comments

Redcurrant and White Chocolate Muffins - on plate
I was terribly excited about making muffins. If you had asked me how much I was looking forward to making muffins I would have responded so enthusiastically that you might have thought you’d asked me the wrong question. The reason for my eagerness was twofold; firstly I had never made muffins before and secondly I had some succulent redcurrants at my disposal.

It was all going so well until I realised I had no muffin cases. Not to worry though as I had cupcake cases coming out of my ears. I was under the impression that the two weren’t too dissimilar but the sides of the cupcake cases would not come up high enough in the muffin tin. I could have gone out to get some muffin cases but frankly I couldn’t be bothered and I wanted to sink my teeth into freshly baked cake as soon as possible. Fortunately I had some silicone cases I could use.

You will need:
1 punnet redcurrants
50g white chocolate
2 eggs, beaten
75g caster sugar
225ml milk
100g butter, melted
275g self raising flour
(muffin cases) read more

Heritage Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Basil Dressing

By 27 Comments

Heritage Tomato and Mozzarella Salad - close up
Wonderful, glorious, British tomatoes are what summer is all about as far as I’m concerned. In the month of August if there isn’t a tomato in the house then there’s something wrong. Big ones, small ones and funny shaped ones it doesn’t matter I love them all. I have grown my own this year and am waiting for them to ripen at the moment but I was very lucky to have got my hands on some more unusual varieties.

When you are faced with such a selection of colours and shapes of tomatoes some can be quite astonishing. I was convinced that some fool had put a few large chillies into the crate and I decided to ignore them, until, on closer inspection they turned out indeed to be tomatoes. It was surprisingly nice to rummage through the crate of tomatoes not knowing what you might come across next and there’s only one way to make the most of them.

You will need (for two):
A selection of tomatoes (don’t refrigerate them)
1 ball mozzarella
Small handful basil
4-5tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper read more

Blackcurrant and Pistachio Fool

By 17 Comments

Blackcurrant and Pistachio Fool - top
I think we are very lucky to have seasons in this country. Each season brings with it an anticipation of some new food; asparagus, tomatoes, pumpkins or sprouts. The weather is something that we can all comment on and moan about. One of the wonderful things about a British summer is the berry season. I don’t count it as summer unless I have had at least one of every berry available. This year I haven’t been lucky enough to ascertain a gooseberry yet but I’m doing pretty well as far as other berries go. As each berry has its own characteristics and flavour it’s hard to choose a favourite. I suppose my favourite is whichever berry is at its ripest and best at that particular time. Blackcurrants have a wonderful flavour and most of us would probably have first had it in Ribena or Robinsons squash. That’s certainly how I remember my first taste of blackcurrant. If you don’t mind puckering your lips and straining your expression then fresh blackcurrants can be enjoyed as they are without any interference. I tend to steer clear of looking positively alarming to others and so I mellow their sourness in various ways. You will need: 1 large handful blackcurrants 1-2 tbsp caster sugar 250ml double cream 1-2tbsp icing sugar 1 small handful of pistachios, chopped

Perhaps I am odd, ‘quirky’ is probably a little more polite, but I like nothing more than pinching the dead flower and stem off of each and every blackcurrant. Even more so if I can do it outside and sit in the sunshine at the same time. Either way this laborious task needs to be undertaken in order to avoid unwanted textures in the finished fool.

When the blackcurrants are prepared put them into a pan with a sprinkling of water and the caster sugar. Cook the blackcurrants on a medium heat until they burst and release their juices then carry on cooking until most of the moisture has gone. If you leave too much moisture in then your fool will be more like a soup. Leave the blackcurrants to cool. Whip up the cream and icing sugar until you have firm peaks and then gently fold the blackcurrants in. Top the fool with a few pistachios. This would look lovely presented in a big bowl; the billowing contours just waiting to be broken with a spoon.

For a pudding that takes around 15 minutes to make (not including the topping and tailing of course) I don’t think it gets much better. The blackcurrants flavour the whole dessert and their acidity is slightly mellowed with the sugar and complemented by the cream. The pistachios add a lovely crunchy texture. I do like to leave my blackcurrants slightly acidic, because I think that’s the point of a fool, but not so acidic that I am left with a face that looks like it’s been chewing lemons all day. read more


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