All That I'm Eating

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

Caramelised Fennel and Salami Pizza

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caramelised fennel and salami pizza
Does it get much better than homemade pizza? If you can get the base crispy enough that is. I have been working on my dough and tomato sauce recipe for some time and I think I have finally cracked it. I make the dough fresh then divide it up and freeze in individual bags so I can have pizza whenever. The tomato sauce is made from obscenely ripe tomatoes for richness and sweetness. Caramelised fennel and salami pizza is the best pizza topping I have tried so far!

Ingredients

You will need:

For the dough (makes enough for four pizza bases):

  • 400g strong white flour
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 sachet fast action yeast
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 250ml warm water

For the tomato sauce (makes enough for one pizza):

  • 4 large, very ripe tomatoes, seeds removed and diced
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 2 small garlic cloves, crushed
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Toppings (per pizza):

  • 1 ball mozzarella, sliced
  • 1 fennel bulb, sliced
  • 1/2 tbsp sugar
  • Salami

Method

Make the dough by mixing together the flour, salt, yeast and sugar. Pour in the olive oil then add the warm water.
Knead for 10 minutes then leave for an hour or so until doubled in size. Divide into four, you can freeze what you don’t use.

Next make the tomato sauce. Add the onion with a little olive oil to a frying pan over a low to medium heat and leave to soften for around 15 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes more then stir in the diced tomatoes. Put a lid on the pan and leave to cook for about 10 minutes then remove the lid, turn the heat up and continue cooking until thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste then blend the sauce.

Add the fennel with a good glug of olive oil to a small lidded pan and leave over a low heat for at least 30 minutes or until well softened. Stir occasionally. Remove the lid from the pan and stir in the sugar. Continue to stir until evenly coated and caramelised.

Preheat an oven to 240C. Roll the pizza dough out on a floured surface so that it fits a large baking tray. Lightly flour the baking tray and put the dough on top. read more

Greek Salad, Hummus and Pitta Bread

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Greek Salad, Hummus and Pitta Bread
I don’t know about you but I find it difficult to know what to cook when it’s hot. I don’t want to be hanging around the oven or hob making unnecessary heat but I also don’t want to eat cold food all the time. The worst thing about it is having to do the washing up (no dishwasher in my house!) when all you really want to do is sit outside. I think this meal of Greek salad, hummus and pitta bread is a great compromise; there isn’t too much clearing up afterwards and the toasted pitta bread means that it’s not an entirely cold meal.

Ingredients

You will need (for four):

  • Pitta breads  £0.50

For the hummus:

  • 1 can chickpeas  £0.65
  • 1 garlic clove  £0.03
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil  £0.10
  • 1 tsp peanut butter  £0.10
  • Salt and pepper  £0.10

For the Greek salad:

  • 1/2 cucumber, sliced  £0.30
  • 3-4 tomatoes, sliced  £0.50
  • 1 small onion, sliced  £0.10
  • 1 small lettuce, chopped  £0.40
  • 1 pack mixed olives and feta  £2.20
  • 1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil  £0.10
  • 1 tsp dried oregano  £0.05

    Total £5.13

Method

Start by adding all the ingredients for the hummus to a food processor and blending until smooth. If the hummus is a little thick you can add a little extra oil or a small amount of hot water.

Mix all the ingredients for the salad together, except the olives, then top with the olive and feta mix.

Heat up the pitta breads according to packet instructions.

Pour a little extra virgin olive oil over the salad and sprinkle over the chopped oregano and a little salt and pepper. read more

Summer Vegetable Minestrone

By 16 Comments

summer vegetable minestrone
I’m not sure you can ever have too many vegetables in the house at once but at this time of year with the peas in the garden, the veg box and whatever looks tempting at the farmers’ market I can find it a little challenging to close the fridge door. You know it’s got a bit excessive when your carrot fronds are getting in the way of the door seal. If you find yourself fighting some spinach to reach the butter or battling beans to get to the mayonnaise there’s only one thing for it: make a minestrone.

Ingredients

You will need (for two big bowls or four smaller ones):

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 2 small carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1 small onion, finely diced
  • 1 small courgette, diced
  • 1 large tomato, diced
  • 1 handful summer greens, shredded
  • 1 handful broad beans, podded
  • 1 handful fresh peas, podded
  • 1 litre hot vegetable stock
  • 90g small pasta
  • Salt and pepper

Method

Prepare the broad beans by adding the beans to a pan of lightly salted boiling water. Cook for 3-4 minutes before removing, running under cold water and then squeezing the beans out of their grey skins. Set aside.

Put a large pan on a low heat and add the olive oil, garlic, carrot, onion and courgette. Put a lid on and leave to soften for around 10 minutes.

Remove the lid and add the tomato, summer greens and peas then pour in the hot stock.

Bring to the boil then add the pasta and a little salt and pepper.  read more

Barber’s Cheese Toastie Off and Pastichio

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Last year I went to the BBC Good Food Show courtesy of Barber’s Cheese and got to try their lovely cheese for the first time. This year, things got a bit more serious and I was invited to The Bath and West Show to take part in a cheese toastie off (as well as having a good nose around the show). For my toastie recipe I wanted to keep it simple so I went for a sort of croque-monsieur; smoked ham, Barber’s Cheese, English mustard and plenty of butter on both sides of the bread. You can’t go wrong with butter. read more

Curried Lamb Pie with Bombay Potato Topping with Schwartz

By 18 Comments

Curried Lamb Pie with Bombay Potato Topping All That I'm Eating (1 of 3)
Dinner parties have a set of criteria that they should fulfil; the host doesn’t want to be stuck in the kitchen away from guests, the food should be tasty and the guests want to be relaxed and leave full. This is why I think something that can be prepared in advance and then finished later on is ideal. I love lamb curry and I have really been enjoying my new Hairy Bikers curry book so I fancied having a go at a curry using lamb mince. So when Schwartz got in touch to see what dinner party ideas I could think of using their spices I set about creating an ideal dinner party dish: Curried Lamb Pie with Bombay Potato Topping. I thought this would meet the above ‘Caroline Criteria’ very well.

Ingredients

You will need (for 4):

For the lamb:
  • Flavourless oil for cooking
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 1 tomato, seeds removed and chopped
  • 2 tsp tomato puree
  • 3-4 tsp Schwartz Curry Powder (I used mild but you could use a hotter one if you like)
  • 400g minced lamb
  • 100g frozen peas
  • Salt and pepper
For the potato topping:

  • 700g potatoes, peeled and diced
  • Flavourless oil for frying
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • ½ tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp black mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • Salt and pepper
    • read more

    A Belgian Croque

    By 21 Comments

    belgian croque allthatimeating (1 of 2)
    When I was in Bruges last year there were a few foods that cropped up on almost all of the menus: moules, frites, waffles and croques. There was one café which we went to more than once because their croques (monsieur, madame and various takes on these) were so good. It was something like €8 for one croque and salad but €10 for two croques and salad; a no brainer really. One of the croques they served was full of ham, cheese and tomato then served with a gargantuan amount of bolognaise on the top. Very handy when you want to be full for an afternoon of taking in the culture, or more accurately, beer tasting. Apparently.

    ingredients

    You will need (per croque):

    • 2 slices thick white bread
    • 2 slices Emmental cheese
    • 2 slices smoked ham (not wafer thin)
    • A few slices tomato
    • Cream cheese with herbs

    method

    Preheat a grill and toast the bread. Spread a nice thick layer of cream cheese on one slice.

    Put the Emmental on the other slice. 

    Top the cream cheese with the ham then the tomatoes and place both slices under the grill.

    Keep the toast under the grill until the tomatoes are hot and the cheese has melted and started to bubble. 

    Stick the slices together, cut up and serve.

    If you have a sandwich toaster you can of course use that but sadly I don’t have one of these handy contraptions. A Corby trouser press would work equally well. read more

    Greek Style Baked Spaghetti and Feta

    By 25 Comments

    Greek Style Baked Spaghetti and Feta
    When I was on holiday I endevoured to try as many new Greek foods as possible. I stopped at sampling some of the more unusual (lamb’s brains in intestine) but immensely enjoyed the baked goods and baklava. One of the things I tried and absolutely loved was tomato baked spaghetti with feta; Italian Greek fusion maybe. Either way after a day at the beach, and a carafe of very easy to drink red wine, this meal was exactly what I needed.

    Foraging in Greece would be an amazingly acidulated affair; lemons, limes, olives, figs and pomegranates were dripping from the roadsides. I loved the fresh herbs that were used in all of the hot food I had and that no matter where you went bread and dessert were obligatory and free of charge. I had a great time and I can’t wait to try and recreate some of the great flavours I tried while I was over there. Here is my interpretation of one of my favourite dishes.

    You will need (for two):
    Olive oil
    1 small onion, finely chopped
    1 fat clove garlic, chopped
    400g cherry tomatoes
    Small handful of basil and parsley, chopped
    Salt and pepper
    170g spaghetti
    200g feta 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

    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

    Pork Wellington

    By 22 Comments

    Pork Wellington - pork fillet
    Comfort food is wonderful. It’s always the things which are full of bread, cheese, pasta, pastry and the like. Sometimes I want the comfort without the guilt, and particularly for this, without the expense. Beef wellington is as magnificent a dinner as they come; it’s one of my all time favourites. However, pork fillet is about a third of the price of beef fillet and therefore makes a brilliantly cheaper alternative.

    I had to ask my butcher to save me a pork fillet as they sell out like there’s no tomorrow. Possibly because the pigs are fed mostly on apples for the latter part of their life meaning the meat has an unrivalled flavour. So with marvellous meat and flavourful fillings I set about making my pork wellington. If anyone knows why it’s called wellington I’d be pleased to find out; let’s hope it’s not an unflattering term for the shape of the finished meal.

    You will need (for four):
    500g pork fillet
    1 pack puff pastry
    250g mushrooms
    Knob of butter
    A small glass of white wine
    1 egg, beaten
    Salt and pepper read more

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