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There’s been a whole bunch of things to try on my kitchen table lately. Here’s a round-up of what’s new!
Coffee Gator
Welsh brand Coffee Gator has one mission: to bring barista-style coffee to the home. Here’s founder Phil Williams to explain more:
I’ve tried out the Pour Over Coffee Maker. It has a very quirky laboratory-style finish:
Pop coffee on top, let hot water drip through. Take about 30 seconds. The flavour it gave my regular coffee was clean and smooth, surprisingly different. It’s now replaced the cafetiere as my day-to-day coffee maker!
I already love my bread machine. It’s great for an emergency loaf, as when I remember late in the evening that we need a bread I can chuck the stuff in and get bread out a few hours later.
But that’s it. I don’t do anything else with it. This book has a bunch of ideas to go beyond the ordinary loaf. From rolls to flatbreads, tea loaves to croissants it’s packed with inspiration. Author Anne Sheasby is a long-standing member of the prestigious Guild of Food Writers in the UK and has created dozens of cookbooks.
I tried plenty out, and all are clearly laid out and were a success. One loaf I made, a garlic bubble ring – a cheesy pull-apart bread – was a big hit and disappeared very quickly! Do make sure you have your machine instructions nearby to remember what the knead-only or mix-only cycles are. This book is becoming a great resource in my house.
Cheeky Boy have a new range of quirky sauces. They’re a range of delicious, healthy, all-natural sauces with a kick, created to liven up any food and any meal. Each distinctive sauce is packed with personality and is made using a unique recipe using only fresh and authentic ingredients. The flavours are inspired from founder Kaye Foong’s far-ranging travel adventures around Europe, Central Asia and the Far and Middle East.
I tried two flavours: the Berlin49, which is a great BBQ-style sauce. Works really good with sausages. But I fell in love with the Limey sauce, which is zingy and fun. It’s especially good with chicken and green veg. Highly recommended!
Passionate about living and eating well, Chika Russell followed her desire for food after leaving a career as a qualified accountant and investment banking. Inspired by the food of her childhood in Nigeria, Chika is leading the way in West African food and creating change in communities in which their aspiration was born.
I tried a bunch of these: the chickpea crisps are very enjoyable and perfect for dipping. I wasn’t such a fan of chilli & lime cashewsm but the honey-spiced almonds were knockout.
Though I don’t mention it very often on this blog, we play a lot of games in our house. Board games, card games, role-playing games, computer games, you name it. We have regular long-form games of Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy, love a Cranium game, shoo out the kids for Cards Against Humanity and run amok with a Telltale Game. Being asked whether I wanted to try out LinkIt, a new family card game was a no-brainer.
It’s a collection of mini-games on circular cards in a cute little tin. There are two decks and broadly you have to match items on one set of cards with an item on the other. It’s very simple and plays well with groups of 3 – 6. It becomes frantic fun!
The Magic Fridge is the latest cookbook from chef-teacher Alex Mackay. I recently attended the launch where he talked about the motivation behind the book and showcased some of the recipes.
Essentially the book is about creating some core ingredients you store in the fridge, then pull them out to make whole new recipes. I’ve tried a few so far, with sweet and sour peppers being a firm favourite in the house so far. I’ve then used the peppers in a duck and lettuce salad, and then in a chicken and chorizo dish. I’m looking forward to cooking more!
I’ve been trying some new products out lately. See what I thought!
MOR Sausages
These new sausages are gluten-free and have much less fat than traditional sausages. I often eye low-fat alternatives with suspicion as something gets lost along the way that ruins the flavour. I’m pleased to say that’s not the case with these sausages!
Alongside the meat MOR have packed in non-meat alternatives to bulk out the sausage filling. These include lentils, cauliflower and chick peas. Each time they serve to add interest to every bite, giving a pleasing range of textures. Currently the range includes Mediterranean chicken with sun-dried tomatoes and basil; pork with super-green veg and lentil; Moroccan pork, cauliflower and chickpea; and pork with beetroot and apple. The chicken were my least favourite being a bit bland but the others were all full of flavour and really tasty. Worth trying! You can find them at Tesco at £3 RRP.
MYHK meals
My Healthy Kitchen are a range of ready meals designed to be tasty yet still healthy. They’re made with high quality, fresh ingredients with flavours from all over the world.
Each meal is under 500 calories with no artificial flavours, colours, or preservatives. Each meal also offers at least one other nutritional benefit, such as low fat, saturated fat, or salt, a source of protein or fibre, or contains 1 (or more!) of your 5 a day.
The meals are designed to be microwaved and ready in about 5 minutes. The packaging is very clever too, with a two tier system I’ve not seen before to stop any ingredients getting soggy from the sauce. There are six myhk meals available: Moroccan Prawn; Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Risotto; Oriental Chicken; Chicken Paella; Pea, Mint & Rocket Risotto; and Prawn Katsu. I tried the first three of these.
Unfortunately I didn’t particularly enjoy any of them. They were all inoffensive but lacking any real strong flavour and low in seasoning. Another quirk common to all of them was the fact that they are high in chilli flavour, which is a way to mask the lack of anything else going on.
A noble effort, but not for me.
Lyons coffee bags
I do love a coffee. And anytime I can get a decent coffee without faff I’m sold. I have a cafetiere on the go most of the time at work, which is not exactly a lot of work but I seem to forget to clean out the gadget at the end of the day without fail.
These coffee bags from Lyons are a great way to get a coffee fix on the go. Each bag (like an oversize teabag) is individually foil-wrapped so you carry a couple wherever you need to.
The taste of the coffee is very good. Not especially strong but very satisfying. Be careful with the bags when you’re taking them out though – I squish teabags against the side of the mug, but these bags prefer a lighter treatment. I split the first one I tried!
Tesco currently sell them for £2.60 for 18 (about 14p a cup) which seems pretty reasonable to me.
It’s a lovely round-up of things. I was particularly taken with the semi-dried tomatoes and salty almonds. The truffle cheese was a bit strong for me though; really pungent and not to my taste. The rest were all excellent.
It’s decent value at £21 and would make a great lunch for 4 people.
Philadephia Flip & Dip
Philadelphia are asking the thorny question, do you double dip?
Philadelphia Flip and Dip is the brand new dip perfect for sharing at summer parties.
It’s a tub of lightly whipped Philadelphia cream cheese, topped with one of three sauces including Sweet Chili, Mexican Salsa and Caramelised Onion. Turn the pot out on to a plate and you’ll see the sauce trickle down the side of the creamy cheese.
Philadelphia Flip & Dip is ideal for sharing occasions and is now available in Tesco and Asda for an RRP of £1.49.
That’s all for now – of you want more stuff like this, pop your name in the box below and get an email every time there’s something new.
Sandwiches for lunch every day drives me mad. Coming up with interesting things to eat for a work day lunch can be taxing, especially if all you have is a microwave and a kettle. True torture for someone into food is having to make a dull ham sandwich. Don’t get me wrong – a ham sandwich can be a great thing, when piled with crunchy lettuce, sweet tomatoes, a slice of gherkin, a slick of mustard-flecked mayo and a hint of toasting on the outside. But a sweaty Mother’s Pride with 1mm ham is depressing.
Lékué have a range of microwave-safe containers which open up the possibilities.
Some of the Lékué range: at the back an all-purpose container; in front of that the omelette maker; and the green can fit a whole chicken
The containers are all silicone. This means a couple of things: they can squish into a tight space easy, they don’t get nuclear hot to the touch in the microwave, and they can be cleaned up dead easy. They all have neat little handles so they’re easy to carry in and out of the microwave. They also come with charming little recipe books you can be inspired by.
Salmon and pesto courgetti has fast become a standby lunch for me. I use a shredded or spiralised courgette topped with a skinless salmon fillet microwaved for two minutes. Once done I stir through a teaspoon of pesto and lunch is served. It’s a brilliantly simple yet nourishing lunch that feels like a real treat. I’ve also done the same thing with cooked chicken: the image below is of chicken, courgetti and salsa.
Microwave omelettes have become another favourite. 2 beaten eggs are seasoned and put in the Lékué. After 1 minute in the microwave I turn it over and repeat. After two minutes total you get a brilliant omelette! I’ve tweaked it in all sorts of ways: soften half a chopped red onion for 20 secs first, cooked a rasher of diced bacon in there first for a minute, added a sprinkle of grated cheese… it’s easy to keep yourself interested. It’s an absolute revelation.
The biggest head-turner was cooking a whole chicken in the microwave.
Yes, a whole chicken.
It takes around 18 minutes to cook completely in the microwave. I mixed some olive oil with vegetable stock powder and rubbed it all over the bird (that got some strange looks in the communal office kitchen). Added a dash of boiling water and set it off. Halfway through cooking I flipped it over – this was the hardest bit – and let it finish.
It’s surprising just how good it tastes. About 12 people said “is it cooked?” which just to be clear, it was. It was just like poached chicken: that moist, tender meat that pulls apart easily. You don’t get crispy skin obviously but it’s the only downside. Packed with flavour, I would defy anyone to figure out how it was cooked in a blind test. An amazing bit of kit and great fun for my team to try.
It’s no small thing to say I love these things. They’re now an essential part of my lunch options. They’re excellent for students, and perfect for the smaller kitchen that only has access to a microwave. Never have a dull lunch again!
