6 March 2014

Kezie Foods - Thai Green Seafood Soup [Review by @CaptainKindling]

We got offered a large selection of exotic meats that none of our regular reviewers were brave enough to try so I invited a good friend of mine, and fellow blogger CaptainKindling to give them a try.  If you want to read more of his stuff then head on over to his regular home of Games & Tea and see what you find...


Kezie Foods - Thai Green Seafood Soup

Having now tried some nice African crocodile burgers and a tough-but-tasty Aussie kangaroo steak, my next worldwide offerings from Kezie Foods took me to another continent with their Thai Green Seafood Soup.
I had heard of Kezie before receiving their food parcel - they were one of the two companies on my shorlist for an exotic barbeque some years ago, but ended up losing out purely on the flip of a coin.  But since then they have branched out from simply offering exotic meat cuts and barbeque foods, and started to offer a range of Wild Gathering Gourmet Ready Meals, which includes the Thai Green Soup.  Their food parcel contained three meals from the Wild Gathering range, but for a nice light bite on a Saturday afternoon the Thai Green Seafood Soup seemed to fit the bill.
The most convenient thing with the Wild Gathering range is that they can be cooked from frozen, so it was nice to be able to just pick this out of the freezer as a spontaneous decision whilst the zebra meatballs were on their second day of defrosting in the fridge!  The second most convenient thing about them is that - like most ready meals - they can be microwaved.
Now I have to admit to being a bit of a microwave snob.  Maybe it's some kind of primal urge to burn things with fire, but I prefer to heat food in an oven rather than blasting it with radiation from a microwave.  However, so far with Kezie's offerings I've been dispensing with my usual way of doing things and putting faith in their instructions.  Whilst the ready meals do come with instructions for oven cooking they do say that microwaving from frozen produces the best results, so that was the method I chose to go with.  The website also recommends serving the soup up with some freshly-baked bread, so whilst it was microwaving I threw a couple of part-baked rolls into the oven to make it a slightly more filling lunch.


As soon as I dished up the soup I was hit hard by a fishy aroma with a light coconut background.  It was tantalising, but I'm a man who loves his coriander, so I was hoping that would come through a little s well.  Being an eastern dish, the soup itself is very watery - much more like a broth really - but that's really just a flavour pot for the generous chunks of seafood to sit in!  The soup contains Kingklip, Cape Hake, Swordfish and Black Tiger Prawns, but it's been so long since I last had Swordfish, and I've never tried Cape Hake or Kingklip, so I have to confess everything except for the Tiger Prawns was a mix of new experiences!
I tried a small sip of the broth first of all to get an idea of the overall flavour, and was instantly taken by surprise by the spicy kick to it!  I like spices so it was very welcome, but again the coriander seemed to be lost, making me regret not adding a little more upon dishing up as the website suggested.  The coconut provided a nice, subtle background flavour though, as did the zing of the lime.
The presumed-Swordfish (as I say, it's been a while since I last tried it!) had a very strong flavour to it, which competed well against the spice of the broth.  The Prawns, Cape Hake and Kingklip however had much lower-key flavours to them, which actually worked well as they blended together with the broth for an overall flavour.  The aroma of the broth continued to come through whilst eating as well, so it really was something of a sensory overload, but in a good way!  The green beans were completely overpowered by the broth though, and as a result they seemed to be present more for added texture than anything else.
As someone who doesn't eat ready-meals very often I had approached this soup a bit warily, but overall I was very impressed.  In fact if this was served up to me in a restaurant I would be extremely satisfied!  My only criticism of the soup is the complete loss of coriander flavour and aroma, so if you're a fan of it then I'd highly recommend following Kezie's guidelines and adding a little extra when dishing the soup up.

A single 300g serving costs £4.49, or a 600g (2 person) serving costs £8.08, so it's quite an expensive option as a light-bite, but as an occasional treat I think it's worth a go!

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