All That I'm Eating

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

Baked Eggs with Spinach and Cheddar

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Also known as eggs en cocotte this is a classic recipe and one I can’t believe I’ve never made before! My baked eggs with spinach and cheddar take no time at all to make; it’s on the table in under 15 minutes. Don’t be fooled though, this simple recipe is seriously luxurious and packed with comforting flavours.

Once your fork (or spoon!) hits that runny yolk it mixes with the soft spinach, melted cheese and double cream and it is truly a joy to eat. The egg white should be just set and the yolk still runny. They are delicious served on their own but served with some crusty bread for dipping you really can’t go wrong. read more

Three Cheese and Cauliflower Macaroni

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three cheese and cauliflower macaroni

I often make macaroni cheese, or some variation of it. I like to play around with adding vegetables, different cheeses or flavours in the sauce. This three cheese and cauliflower macaroni cheese is one of the most delicious I’ve made. The combination of Emmental (for sweetness and stringiness), Cheddar (for bite and cheesiness) and Parmesan (for savouriness) means you get the best of all the cheeses! And don’t worry, there’s a cauliflower in there too; to add a little vegetable healthiness amongst all that indulgence.

ingredients

You will need (for two generous portions):

  • 150g macaroni
  • 1 small cauliflower, chopped into small florets
  • 25g unsalted butter
  • 25g plain flour
  • 300ml milk
  • 2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 75g strong Cheddar cheese, grated
  • 75g Emmental cheese, grated
  • 30g Parmesan, grated
  • Salt and pepper
  • Handful breadcrumbs
  • Sprig fresh rosemary

method

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the macaroni and cook according to packet instructions. Add the cauliflower to a steamer over the macaroni for the last 3-4 minutes of cooking. Drain them both well and put to one side.

To make the cheese sauce melt the butter in a small saucepan on a medium heat and then add the flour. Cook for a minute or two then gradually whisk in the milk. Keep whisking to ensure there are no lumps.

Continue whisking the sauce until it bubbles and becomes thick. Remove from the heat, stir through most of the cheese, the mustard and a little salt and pepper.

Mix the macaroni, cauliflower and cheese sauce together then tip into a baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and then sprinkle over the breadcrumbs. Pop the rosemary sprig on top.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 25-30 minutes, or until golden on top.

You might be thinking that the rosemary is a bit pointless just stuck on top of the macaroni cheese like that. Well, it’s actually deliberate. When the dish comes out of the oven you want to remove all the leaves from the rosemary and leave them on top. Then, when you serve it up everyone gets a bit of roasted rosemary which has such a great flavour. This three cheese and cauliflower macaroni is such a comfort food dish for me; cheese, pasta, cauliflower and woody rosemary are all so good together.

Roasted Baby Onions with Cheese on Toast

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baby onions

There’s always something leftover at this time of year; some sort of ingredient hanging around in the fridge that needs using up. I’d bought some baby onions for making a boeuf bourguignon and had half the pack left. I thought about slicing them and lightly pickling them but I then realised I also had some leftover cheese. You can never go wrong with cheese and onion so half an hour later we were tucking into roasted baby onions with cheese on toast.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 12 (ish) baby onions, peeled
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 4 slices white bread, the crustier the better
  • Leftover cheese, grated

Method

Put the onions and rosemary into a baking dish and drizzle over a little oil and salt and pepper. Roll the onions round in the dish so they get well coated in the oil and seasoning.

Roast in the oven at 180C for 25 minutes.

Remove the onions from the oven and sprinkle over the sugar then return to the oven for another five minutes.

While the onions are roasting top each slice of bread with some of the grated cheese. You can grill the cheese on toast if you like, I put mine in the bottom of the oven with the onions so the bread got lovely and toasted as the cheese melted.

Taking a piece of savoury, salty cheese on toast and squishing a soft, sweet, roasted onion onto the top before eating it was not only a very enjoyable thing to do but tastes delicious. The rosemary really lifts the onions and cuts through the cheese. You could use any leftover cheese for this, I used cheddar, and a little sprinkling of Worcestershire sauce would be a great addition too!

If you end up with any of the roasted onions leftover you could add them to all sorts of things. I had three leftover which I added to some sausage meat and made some sausage rolls.

Olive and Fontina Baked Courgettes

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Olive and Fontina Baked Courgettes close up with antipasti

A couple of courgettes turned up in the veg box this week. Although the days have been warm, borderline hot, recently the evenings are still cold reminding me that it’s firmly still spring. I’m certainly not complaining, I prefer spring in some ways; mostly that the heat (if any) is not muggy and there are many, many fewer insects. All the more enjoyable for al fresco dining I think you’ll agree; insects in summer mean I am forever swiping the air to deter a particularly determined fly or being chased round the garden by a wasp with a bad attitude. Not the epitome of glamour and demure that I aim for in every garden dining experience. But not to worry, ones absence from the dining table will hardly be noticed when a plate of these Olive and Fontina Baked Courgettes are served up.

Ingredients

You will need (for two or four as a side):

  • 2 courgettes, sliced lengthways
  • Handful pitted black olives
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 75g fontina cheese, grated (if you can’t get fontina you could get away with a comté or emmental)

Method

Preheat an oven to 200C. Scoop out some of the courgette seeds with a teaspoon then pop the halved courgettes onto a baking tray and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

While the courgettes bake blend the olives and olive oil in a blender to make a chunky paste.

Remove the courgettes from the oven and spread the olive paste over the inside of each courgette. Sprinkle the grated fontina over the top and return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

If you grow your own veg you’ll be aware of the ubiquitous gardening related melodramas involving too many courgettes, all ready at the same time and the culinary question of doom, “Courgette fritters anyone?”. Having been previously drowning in courgettes myself I have been through many of the available courgette relieving remedies: ratatouille, roasted or raw in salads, pasta sauces, fritters, omelettes and even cakes. This is certainly my new favourite way to dish them up, the salty olives and creamy cheese are fantastic with the grassy courgette, and I can feel several variations coming along for the summer involving different fillings and cheeses.

Smoked Cheddar and Pickled Onion Turnovers

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Smoked Cheddar and Pickled Onion Turnovers

There’s something you need to know about these turnovers. Although they are most excellent for using up leftovers they are more than worth baking up in their own right. Am I the only one who couldn’t say no if offered Smoked Cheddar and Pickled Onion Turnovers? Didn’t think so. Perfect for using up roast or mashed potatoes, pickled onions or chutneys and whatever hunk of cheese you have lying around. Completely versatile and a little bit too tasty to believe you can knock them up out of some odds and ends.

Ingredients

You will need (for four turnovers):

For the pastry

  • 100g butter, frozen
  • 200g plain flour
  • Few tbsp cold water
  • Salt
  • 1 egg, beaten (for brushing)

For the filling

  • 1 medium potato, peeled and chopped into small cubes
  • 4 small/medium pickled onions, sliced
  • 125g smoked cheddar, grated
  • Salt and pepper
  • 50ml double cream

Method

The recipe below is as if you were making them completely from scratch. You can of course skip the potato cooking part if you have leftover potatoes.

This method for pastry is such a quick and easy way of making some delicate flaky pastry. Well worth a try.

Grate the butter into the flour then work the butter through the flour until you have breadcrumbs. This will be quite quick to do thanks to grating the butter in.

Add a few spoons of cold water to the flour mix to bring the pastry together. Knead the dough quickly then refrigerate for around half an hour.

While the pastry is chilling cook the potato in salted boiling water for 5-7 minutes until cooked. Drain the potatoes then leave to cool.

Mix the potatoes, sliced onions, cheese and cream with a little salt and plenty of pepper.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and divide into four. Roll each piece out on a floured surface until roughly the size of a side plate.

Divide the cheese mix between the pastry and pile it up across the middle. Brush a little egg onto one side of the pastry then fold the pastry over to encase the filling and press the two sides together.

Place the turnovers onto greaseproof paper and brush with extra egg. Make a little hole in the top of each one.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 40-45 minutes.

I would go so far as to say I achieved some layers in that pastry and there wasn’t a soggy bottom in sight. This is all of my favourite things wrapped up in pastry: sweet and sharp pickled onions, smoky and salty Cheddar and the potato and cream marry everything together like a little parcel of perfection. I love how rustic they look after baking with bits of cheese bubbling out all over the top. I made just four of these; you’d be wise to make at least double that.

Review: The Cheese Market

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The Cheese Market - All That I'm Eating (1 of 3)

Any excuse to eat cheese is fine by me. I love the variety of cheese that’s available in Britain (and from across the World) and some cheeses are more suited to certain applications than others. At least I think so. For example I prefer mozzarella when it’s been cooked and has those little brown spots on the top (but I absolutely love a caprese salad!) and I would rather have Camembert cooked than on a cheese board. The Cheese Market got in touch to see if I would like to try out one of their cheese boxes; like I said, any excuse.

The box I received was the Fine Food Lovers Gift Set and consisted of three British organic cheeses: Godminster Smoked Cheddar, Perl Las and Wye of Bath. I really liked how the cheese was packaged, especially with the string around the box and I think it would make a lovely gift to someone. The obvious thing to do was to have a cheese and wine night but I did also do a little cooking with the blue cheese too.

I made a super simple and quick pasta, broccoli and blue cheese sauce to have for dinner one night. For two people you will need:

  • 150g pasta
  • Handful broccoli stems (e.g. tenderstem) roughly chopped
  • 75ml double cream
  • 100g blue cheese, crumbled
  • Black pepper

Put the pasta into a pan of boiling water and cook according to packet instructions.

Add the broccoli to a steamer above the pasta for the last 3-4 minutes of cooking.

Warm the double cream gently in a small pan and add the cheese. Let the cheese melt into the cream and season with the black pepper.

Mix everything together in a pan when cooked and serve.

Cheese and wine night (Friday night seems to be the evening of choice for this) was actually cheese and Champagne night; I know, how decadent am I?! I do find the acidity of Champagne works particularly well to cut through the creamy, fattiness of the cheese. Or maybe I’m just looking for a reason to drink more Champagne.

Either way, the combination of the three cheeses was really good. I liked that the blue cheese had been cut so one side didn’t have any mould on at all. It was beautifully creamy but really punchy at the same time. The Wye Valley cheese has a lovely texture; not crumbly but still nice and firm. The Godminster Smoked Cheddar was a revelation; I had not tried smoked cheddar before and it was really wonderful. I think it would make a fantastic macaroni cheese. The Godminster rosemary crackers that came with the cheese box were really good; I can see why they won a Great Taste Award.

Thanks to the Cheese Market for the cheese. All opinions expressed are my own.

Barber’s Cheese Toastie Off and Pastichio

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barbers cheese toastie off

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.

I didn’t win the toastie competition but I did get to have a catch up with Urvashi (the Botanical Baker), meet some fellow bloggers and also have a chat with one of the original Barber’s about their cheese. The recipe that won was from Fromage Homage who used Barber’s cheese, bacon lardons and caramelised onion relish; it sounded amazing so I have to try it soon.

It’s always nice to get out and have a roam around these shows. The Barber’s stall was right outside the British Cheese Awards room and we got to sample some great British cheeses; crumbly Lancashire, the winning rosary goat’s cheese with herbs and a lovely herb and garlic cheddar. The one which caught my eye was the Cornish Yarg wrapped in wild garlic leaves as opposed to the normal nettle leaves. I’ll be on the lookout for that!

We were sent home with a few tasty lumps of Barber’s to get cooking with ourselves. I have to say I prefer my cheese as it comes over being cooked (unless it’s on a pizza or in a toastie!) but when I found their recipe for pastichio I had to try it. I had pastichio when I went to Greece a few years ago and I’ve always wanted to try it at home but, as with most of these recipes, I never found the time.

Ingredients

This Pastichio recipe is from the recipe booklet from Barber’s.

You will need (for 4-6):

For the meat sauce –

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 500g minced beef
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 200ml red wine
  • 400g canned chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
  • Salt and pepper

For the macaroni –

  • 250g macaroni
  • 55g butter
  • 55g plain flour
  • 600ml milk
  • 175g Barber’s 1833 Cheddar, grated
  • 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
  • 1 egg, beaten

Method

For the meat sauce heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and garlic and cook gently for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft but not browned. Add the mince and stir until browned.

Stir in the cinnamon then add the red wine and allow it to bubble for a minute. Add the tomatoes and mint and season. Simmer very gently for 40 minutes until thickened.

Meanwhile cook the macaroni as directed on the packet but take care not to overcook. Drain well.

Heat an oven to 180C. In a saucepan melt the butter then stir in the flour and cook for a minute. Gradually add the milk and cook for 5 more minutes. Add half the cheese and the nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Add the macaroni and egg into the sauce.

Spread half the macaroni in the bottom of an oven proof dish, cover with the meat sauce then top with the remaining macaroni. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown.

I was surprised to find this was made with minced beef; I think the one I tried before was with minced pork. The pasta I had this with in Greece was like a very long macaroni tube rather than the shorter macaroni I used. I really enjoyed this. Although it feels like quite a wintry dish the cinnamon and mint really lift the beef to make it light and aromatic. It was sort of moussaka crossed with Bolognese and macaroni cheese; a new favourite I reckon.

Thanks to Barber’s for the invite and the cheese. All opinions expressed are my own.

Ultimate Cheese on Toast with Lea & Perrins

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I can’t have cheese on toast without a dribble of Worcestershire Sauce. I’ve added it to countless different meals; cottage pie, risotto and spaghetti bolognese to name a few. Lea and Perrins are working with the guys from Sorted to show different dishes you can add your Worcestershire Sauce to and I was asked to see what I could come up with. read more

A Belgian Croque

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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. read more

Review: Barber’s 1833 Cheddar and Twice Baked Cheddar Soufflés

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Who doesn’t like a bit of cheese? Over the last couple of years I think Cheddar has been getting a bit of a bad name. Indeed ‘cheddar’ can be used to describe any cheese where the cheddaring process had been used to make it; hence, a piece of chewy, nasty, plastic cheese can be called Cheddar along with lovely, crumbly, exemplary artisan Cheddars.
Barber’s kindly invited me to the BBC Good Food Show last year in Birmingham and I really enjoyed it. I had a good old chat to Barber’s about their cheese; they use their own starter cultures to make their cheese and I was amazed at the difference each culture can make to the end flavour of the cheese. Some will give it an earthy, Marmite flavour and others will give a slight sweetness. In order to enjoy their cheese Barber’s gave me all the ingredients and a recipe to make a delicious twice baked cheese soufflé. read more

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