All That I'm Eating

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

Five Minute Salmon Noodles

By 14 Comments

I blinked and it is the end of January! I can’t believe this is my first post of 2021. But these five minute salmon noodles are quite an apt recipe for now. I’ve been working from home and the appeal of toast and sandwiches has worn pretty thin. However, I don’t want to be making a time consuming lunch each day. So I started to think about food I could make in a few minutes; a few basic recipes which will add variety to my working week and be a doddle to make.

I used some sweet chilli hot smoked salmon for these noodles. It was reduced and I used it for two lunches (the other of which I’ll tell you about below). A handful of fresh vegetables, dried noodles and a soy dressing made from store cupboard ingredients are all you need for a delicious lunch in minutes. read more

Honey Cake

By 24 Comments

There’s honey, and then there’s honey. I like all of it but my preference is for local honey. Delicious in so many recipes I wanted to make the honey the star of the dish; so I set about baking a honey cake.

At a market recently I tried some different honeys from a local producer. Not only were they different to each other, and commercial honeys, in colour and texture but the taste was out of this world. I chose the wildflower honey and remembered I had wanted to bake a honey cake for a while. The name ‘honey cake’ conjures up images of fine summer picnics in the garden, tall glasses of lemon barley water and sounds like you imagine it tastes. read more

Rainbow Carrot Tart with Summer Herbs and Goat’s Cheese

By 26 Comments

I often get left with carrots at the bottom of the fridge. They play an overlooked, but important, base in so many meals: part of a mirepoix, in casseroles and in pies to name a few. Rarely, in my kitchen anyway, do the carrots get to be the star of the dish. So when some beautiful rainbow carrots arrived in the veg box it would have been rude to simply chuck them into various dinners. This time, I wanted to celebrate this lovely root in a rainbow carrot tart with summer herbs and goat’s cheese. A seasonal halfway tart if you will; one that is both full of summer flavours and the anticipation of autumn. read more

Sticky Soy and Chilli Chicken Thighs

By 14 Comments

sticky soy and chilli chicken close up

From time to time I get a recipe stuck in my head and I can think of nothing else until I make it. These sticky soy and chilli chicken thighs are exactly one of those recipes. There were several criteria that these thighs had to fulfil and anything short of my imagined flavour would not suffice. Most importantly they had to be sticky; properly glazed so that they left trails of marinade on the plate. Secondly, they had to have a salty soy base and a little chilli kick. The ginger, garlic, lime, onion and sesame were all added for depth of flavour. They were everything I wanted them to be.

ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce (I used a low salt one)
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • Juice 1 lime
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 small piece ginger, around the size of a thumbnail, grated
  • Pinch dried chillies
  • 2-3 spring onions, sliced

method

Mix all the ingredients together except the chicken to make the marinade.

Put the chicken thighs into a roasting dish and pour over the marinade. Really mix the chicken and marinade together making sure you get some inside, over and under the thighs.

Put in the fridge to marinate for around an hour, longer if possible, but a shorter time wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Preheat an oven to 200C. Put the chicken into the oven with all the marinade and roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, baste the chicken and return to the oven for another 20 minutes. Check the chicken is cooked through after 40 minutes total roasting time.

I served these sticky chicken thighs with a noodle salad full of fresh herbs.

Combining honey and soy together means you can’t go far wrong with a salty, sweet and sticky end result. The thing I love about roasting the chicken rather than frying it is that the chicken and marinade cook into each other and you’re left with a thick, unctuous sauce which is just asking to be spooned over the chicken. It would be delicious on the BBQ, you’d need to baste it often, and I think it would work really well with tofu too. This is my kind of comfort food. I can imagine a cold evening where I roast these, simply serve them with a bowl of white rice and let the leftover marinade mingle with the rice.

Apricot and Coconut Granola

By 13 Comments

apricot and coconut granola

I used to think I didn’t like dried apricots. As it turns out, I do, but only the extra squidgy unsulphured ones. When you bite into them or pull them apart it’s almost like they are full of thick honey and you can see the strands of sticky apricot trying to hold on to the other half. They are the perfect addition to some apricot and coconut granola; a burst of sunny-day flavours for breakfast is how I like to start my day.

ingredients

You will need (for a big jar of finished granola):

  • 350g oats
  • 150g mixed nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts, macadamias, walnuts or whatever you like)
  • 75g seeds (poppy, linseed, sesame or whatever you like)
  • 75g desiccated coconut
  • 125g dried apricots, chopped
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • 120ml honey or maple syrup

method

In a large bowl mix together the oats, nuts, seeds and desiccated coconut.

Preheat an oven to 150C and line two large baking trays with baking paper.

Add the honey (or maple syrup) and coconut oil to a small pan and heat gently until the coconut oil has melted. Stir everything together to make sure it’s well combined.

Pour the honey and coconut mixture over the granola ingredients and mix everything together really well with a large spoon.

Tip the granola onto the lined baking trays and spread the mix out over the tray so you have one even layer.

Put the trays into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until it’s smelling toasty. Remove the trays from the oven, mix everything together well and then put back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes so that everything gets evenly toasted. Be careful not to let anything catch but do leave it in long enough for everything to be a lovely golden colour.

Remove the trays from the oven and leave to cool. Add the chopped apricot to the granola mix then tip into an airtight container.

This amount of granola will last two of us at least a fortnight having a generous serving with yoghurt.

I love how dark the apricots are amongst all the other ingredients. You can of course use the orange dried apricots, or any other dried fruit that you like to make it your own. The combination of apricot and coconut together I really like and I think I’d add some coconut flakes next time for more texture. I like to serve my homemade granola over yoghurt and my OH likes to add some to other cereal and make both go a little further.

Banana Bread with Chocolate, Oats and Honey

By 10 Comments

banana bread with chocolate, oats and honey

You know those bananas that you keep avoiding in the fruit bowl? The ones which got a bit speckled a few days ago and now are fully fledged brown? Well, throw out your normal go-to recipe because my banana bread with chocolate, oats and honey is the way to go. Adding a few extra ingredients gives it a delicious flavour and texture and I have been very much enjoying having a slice for breakfast each morning. Any excuse to start the day with chocolate.

ingredients

You will need (for one banana bread loaf):

  • 125g butter
  • 3 medium overripe bananas
  • 2 eggs
  • 100g honey
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 250g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 75g oats, plus a few extra
  • 100g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

method

Grease and line a loaf tin and preheat the oven to 160C.

Melt the butter and honey together in a small saucepan and stir to ensure they are well combined.

Mash the bananas in a large bowl then pour in the butter and honey and crack in the eggs. Whisk everything together well.

Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into the banana mix and fold everything in gently. Stir in the oats and most of the chocolate chunks.

Pour the mix into the prepared tin and then sprinkle the extra oats and leftover chocolate over the top.

Bake for an hour, then check on the loaf to see if a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle. If not, keep baking and checking it every 5-10 minutes until fully baked.

Leave the loaf to cool in the tin for a few minutes before removing and leaving to cool on a wire rack.

The oats on top of the banana bread have a lovely toasted flavour and the oats inside the bread swell up and have a deliciously chewy texture. Who can resist a slice of warm banana bread? It’s even harder to resist when you know it’s covered in and is full of melted chocolate. Dark chocolate is definitely the best choice for this as it works so well with the sweetness from the bananas, sugar and honey. The honey gives the cake a beautiful mellow flavour and slight sticky texture. If your banana bread lasts a few days and you want to freshen it up, try lightly grilling or microwaving it and serving with plain yoghurt. Honestly one of the best breakfasts imaginable.

Miso Roasted Aubergine with Rainbow Chard and Soy Dressing

By 14 Comments

miso roasted aubergine with chard and brown rice

There’s a bit of a miso theme on the blog at the moment. For two reasons: firstly, miso is delicious and secondly, it’s expensive and you have to buy quite a lot. So I needed to use up my stash and I really wanted to have a go at my own miso roasted aubergine. Most of the ingredients used are pretty standard store cupboard staples; I was pretty amazed how much more than the sum of its parts this recipe is. It’s fantastic, if I do say so myself, and my miso glaze and my soy dressing will be making many future appearances in my kitchen.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 2 aubergines (normal purple ones are fine but if you can get stripy or white ones they do look lovely and are slightly smaller)
  • 150g brown rice
  • 5 stalks of chard roughly chopped

For the miso glaze:

  • 2 tbsp white miso paste
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp runny honey (use maple syrup or agave to make it vegan)
  • 1 tsp water
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil

For the dressing:

  • 2 tbsp finely chopped red onion
  • 1 tsp pickled ginger
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • Juice 1 lime
  • black pepper
  • 1 tsp sugar

    • read more

    Spanish Fennel Biscuits with Cream Cheese and Honey

    By 27 Comments

    Spanish Fennel Biscuits with sherry

    When I was in Spain I ordered a dessert on the assumption that there had been a translation error on the menu. They can’t mean cheese ice cream, surely, they must mean cheeseCAKE ice cream, that’ll be delicious. Nope. Along came some cheese ice cream with a massive cracker on the side. What a revelation it was. The ‘cracker’ was actually a slightly sweet, very thin, fennel infused biscuit covered in sticky honey, which when dunked in the cheese ice cream was really rather delicious. I wanted to attempt something similar to this at home, so here are my Spanish fennel biscuits served with cream cheese and honey alongside some cracking fino sherry.

    Ingredients

    You will need (for 12 shortbread triangles):

    • 180g plain flour
    • 50g caster sugar
    • 150g unsalted butter, soft
    • 2 tbsp fennel seeds

    To serve:

    • Full fat cream cheese
    • Honey
    • Sherry

    Method

    Start by making the shortbread. Lightly grease a baking tray or small baking tin. Preheat your oven to 160C.

    Mix all of the shortbread ingredients together in a large bowl or food processor until well combined and you have a dough.

    If you’re using a baking tray place the shortbread on to it and then flatten the mix out into a round, about the size of a small dinner plate. If you’re using a baking tin, press the mix into the tin. Prick the dough all over with a fork.

    Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes then remove and mark into 12 portions while still hot. Remove from the tin onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

    Spoon the cream cheese into a bowl and drizzle with honey. Dip the shortbread in or spread the cream cheese onto the shortbread and serve with well chilled fino sherry.

    Serving the sherry chilled is the key to this dessert, fino sherry is quite dry but I think you need it to be to cut through the thick, sweet cheese and buttery shortbread. The fennel is just the perfect finishing touch to this dessert; enough to be perceptible but not so much that you feel like you’re nibbling on pure aniseed. It is a dessert for sharing, everyone can grab a biscuit and have a dunk. However, if you’re worried about any double-dipping (eww) you could serve the cheese in individual bowls, then, when all the crumbs have fallen into the cheese you can scoop out the remainder with a spoon and it’s like you’ve made your own cheesecake. If you are really that concerned about double dipping then I suggest getting some new acquaintances.

    Sticky Soy Chard

    By 22 Comments

    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):

    • 1 head chard
    • 2 tbsp sesame seeds
    • 2 tbsp soy sauce
    • 1 tbsp runny honey (use maple syrup to make it vegan)
    • Juice ½ a lime
    • 1 garlic clove, crushed
    • ½ tsp five spice
    • Black pepper
    • Rapeseed oil, for frying

    Method

    Snap the chard leaves off the stalk so you have individual leaves. Cut off any larger end pieces from the leaves and give everything a good rinse; if the leaves retain a little water that’s not a bad thing.

    Get a wok or large frying pan on a medium heat. Add the sesame seeds and dry fry for a few minutes until toasted. Remove from the pan and keep to one side.

    Add a little oil to the pan then add all the chard. Leave to soften for five minutes or so, stirring regularly. The water left on the leaves will help to steam it.

    Whisk together the soy sauce, honey, lime juice, garlic, five spice and a little black pepper. Tip this into the pan and cook for a few minutes more until the sauce has turned into a sticky glaze.

    Sprinkle over the sesame seeds before serving.

    We had this for a light lunch and it would be fantastic served with just simple steamed rice. Maybe with a few vegetable spring rolls, crispy tofu or chicken skewers on the side. The glaze has a bit of everything: salt, sweet, sour and a little warmth from the five spice and pepper. When cooked this way the chard stalks retain a little crunch and the leaves wilt to a delicious softness. You could try this glaze with other greens too; cabbage, kale or even brussels sprouts would work really well.

    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.

    Recent Tweets

    • Error: Invalid or expired token.