All That I'm Eating

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

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

Heritage Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Basil Dressing

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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

Wet Garlic Pizza Bread and Tiger Tomato Salad

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West Garlic
It’s a good job I’ve no aspirations to become a vampire. Garlic seems to divide opinion; you either can’t get enough of it or can’t stand it. I love it. There are of course many meals where it serves the purpose of adding to the background flavour rather than dominating the meal but a life without garlic, for me, would be a very miserable one indeed.

A few juicy stems of wet garlic arrived in my vegetable box. I knew they would be pretty powerful and pungent and it seemed only right to make garlic bread. However, garlic bread alone does not a meal make and fortunately I had some brilliant tiger tomatoes that I picked up from the farmers’ market. I’m not sure how clearly you can see the tomatoes but they are glorious; vibrant red flesh, green seeds and dark green striped skin.

You will need, a light lunch for two:

  • For the dough: 500g strong white flour, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 7g sachet yeast, 300ml warm water
  • 3 wet garlic bulbs
  • Small handful fresh parsley
  • Tomatoes, spme very ripe and tasty ones
  • 6-8 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • A few fresh basil leaves
  • Salt and pepper

Start by making the dough. I confess that since the acquisition of my food mixer, making bread dough is simple and carefree. Put all of the ingredients into the bowl, turn the dough hook on and come back 10 minutes later to perfectly kneaded dough. Lazy? Perhaps. Easy? Definitely. Leave the dough in the bowl, cover the top and leave until doubled in size; an hour or so. read more

Beetroot, Walnut, Goat’s Cheese and Orzo Pasta ‘Salad’ with Dill Dressing

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We are coming to the end of last year’s stored beetroot and can look forward to some fresh summer beetroot soon. I haven’t planted beetroot this year as I decided I would grow peas, beans, more beans, tomatoes and courgettes only. Not to worry though as last year’s beetroot are still popping up in my vegetable box and down at the local market. I’ve called this a ‘salad’ because it sort of falls in the salad category with the beetroot, walnuts and dressing but at the same time it is a pasta dish; a very luminously coloured pasta dish at that. read more

Three ways with Asparagus 3 of 3: Raw Asparagus Salad

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Asparagus
The third and final part of my demo is raw asparagus salad. This is a brilliant way of enjoying asparagus. It almost tastes of fresh peas or beans. Eating asparagus raw means you can enjoy its crunch and subtle flavours. Don’t worry though, it’s far more elegant than shovelling whole spears in your face, it’s delicately peeled into thin strips with a very simple dressing.

You will need (for two):

A bunch of asparagus Rapeseed Oil Old Winchester (or Parmesan) Juice of ½ lemon Black pepper Peeling the asparagus with a hand peeler is actually quite easy; you can attack it full force, bits of asparagus flying everywhere, and it seems to work pretty well. You could try it with a mandoline but I have too much affection for my fingers to try it. 

Remove the woody ends of the asparagus but leave enough to hold on to. Peel the asparagus from stem to tip, keep the stems (non woody) for making into a soup, or if you’re really adventurous a soufflé or sorbet. Pile all your peelings into a bowl, drizzle over some rapeseed oil, lemon juice, pepper and a healthy shaving of Old Winchester. Old Winchester is our answer to Parmesan and if you’ve not tried it before it has a similar texture but a bit more bite and acidity. read more

Kohlrabi and Carrot Salad with Broccoli Stir Fry

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Kohlrabi, carrots and broccoli
I get a seasonal vegetable box delivered. I like it because it forces me to try new vegetables and recipes to make the most out of what I have. I shouldn’t admit it but I’m going to: there are some vegetables I could live without. It’s terrible I know but I could happily frolic through life without missing celery or leeks. There are also some vegetables that I adore for a short time but when they turn up in my fridge over and over again I’m tempted to put them on the compost. There’s only so much cabbage a person can eat without genuine fear of becoming a brassica. This recipe was devised because of the cornucopia of vegetables residing in the fridge. You know it’s time to use up as many as possible when you can no longer close the door. 

Kohlrabi was the most intriguing vegetable of the lot; it looks a bit like an octopus. Dinner was to be designed around a loving partnership of kohlrabi and carrot.  Toasting sesame seeds is one of my favourite smells.

For two people:

For the carrot and kohlrabi salad:

  • a quarter of a kohlrabi, peeled and julienned
  • three small carrots, peeled and julienned
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
  • black pepper  
  • 2 tbsp of toasted black sesame seeds

For the broccoli stir fry:

  • Handful purple sprouting broccoli, woody ends removed and chopped
  • 1 large red onion, sliced
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 1 sachet miso soup
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1tbsp sweet chilli sauce
  • Oil for frying
  • 2 noodle nests

I always remove the ends of the purple sprouting broccoli as I can find them to be a bit woody. You could leave the broccoli stalks in their entirety but they might be a tad tricky to consume gracefully at the table. read more

Broad Bean, Bacon and New Potato Salad

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Broad Beans in the pod
I planted my own broad beans back in February full of anticipation and excitement for that day when I could finally snap the pods from the plant, lightly cook them and enjoy them just as they are. To say I was jealous of the broad beans at the farmers’ market is an understatement. I couldn’t possibly buy any and cheat on my home grown ones…could I?  Some of my broad beans are at the mangetout stage and I enjoy the occasional one immensely straight from the plant. They’ve a bit more growing to do before I can make my broad bean houmous. Until then the big, fat, shiny green beans from the farmers’ market will keep me going. To make the most of the seasonal ingredients available I cooked up this broad bean, bacon and new potato salad.

One of my favourite things is popping the broad beans out of their fluffy pods. I love the smell. I used around 20 pods if not a few more to get enough beans for this meal. The more the merrier I say.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • Around 20 broad bean pods
  • 4 rashers bacon
  • 10-12 new potatoes, peeled and quartered (or halved depending on the size)
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • Fresh herbs, small amounts of each (I used chives and mint), chopped
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 small garlic clove, crushed

Method

Remove the broad beans from their pods and boil them in salted water for about 4 minutes. 

Keep the water and then boil the potatoes until soft. Drain and put to one side.

When the beans have cooled you can begin one of the most satisfying pursuits imaginable. Squeeze the beans out of their grey, papery cases. Some will come out easily with just a small pinch whereas some require the insertion of a fingernail to get things moving.  read more

Smoked Trout and Potato Salad

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Local smoked trout
I have been doing many things recently that I have not done before. I recently de-boned a chicken, which I was pretty apprehensive about because it was new to me, but I am pleased to confirm it couldn’t have gone better. This recipe is another example of trying to do something I was thoroughly convinced was complicated and time consuming.  I had never previously bought a whole fish and so I bought two strikingly golden smoked trout from the farmers’ market. I wanted something light and filling and so I made a potato salad where the dressing (I suppose you’d call it) was more trout orientated. 

Ingredients

You will need (for one large bowl of salad):
  • 2 smoked trout
  • 500g potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 250g crème fraîche
  • Wholegrain mustard
  • Fresh tarragon, dill and parsley
  • 1 lemon
  • Salt and pepper

Method

I got home and I unwrapped the trout. I looked at it somewhat diffidently and with remarkable concentration. I lopped the heads off and was relieved that it was at least half complete. How do I take the skin off? By now there was a faint glisten of moisture about my brow. Due to its being gutted my life was made awfully easy. I took the bottom fin and gave it a pull. It was like peeling an orange.

I can’t tell you how simple it was. What I thought would be a right kerfuffle turned out to be one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done. Once the skin was off, the meat just fell off the bone and I was left with a pile of meat and a complete pile of bones. There were a few strays that I found amidst the pile but I got the blighters. 

During my adventures with the trout, a pan full of potatoes had been merrily bubbling away in the background. Once cooked they were drained and left to cool while the dressing was made.  read more

Pea and Lettuce Soup – a farewell to Summer

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I just spent the last week in Dorset. It had me positively wanting to don my walking boots, breathe the fresh air – slightly tainted by manure – and whistle Greig’s Morgenstimmung all day long. Fortunately, my dignity stayed in tact. I was also hampered by the fact I don’t own walking boots and will only walk if there is the promise of food and drink at the other end.
They are so proud of their food down there and Dorset cheeses were offered everywhere I went. They are most excellent. As an homage to Summer, on an almost scorching September day a soup was needed. I found the following things around and about: read more

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