Tesco Finest - Winter Cranberry Pork Pie - proper Christmas Treat [@Nli10]

Ah Christmas.  My family take the same view as me in that it's a time for buying the slightly better versions of things - so on Xmas day proper we sat down to this beast of a pork pie and it was great.  The end.

Except they still had them in the supermarkets in between Yuletide and New Year so we bought another to tempt our 98 year old Nanna into having a few more vitamins than usual.  And it worked.

Both the topping and the pastry are glorious, and even the jelly layer is high quality.

I suppose the meat must be too - but I'm used to my dad's home made pies with all kinds of fruit and decent cuts of meat inside so this is still a little tame.  

Overall though well worth the festive double dip and I think I've still got a quarter to finish today with my NY Day leftovers plate.  Huzzah!

 

Delicious & Light Hot Cross Pies (Iceland) By @SpectreUK

Hot Cross Bun season is upon us and we've already had a few strange buns, one resulting in melted chocolate pieces in the toaster. Stepping outside of the box are these Mr Kipling Delicious & Light Hot Cross Pies. I suppose they could be a substitute for mince pies, for those that really miss them.

I noticed on the box that these Delicious & Light Hot Cross Pies were reduced in sugar. Sounding pretty good for you is one thing, and some people like that, whereas, I like sugar. So, the reduced sugar worried me. I've stopped buying certain biscuits because the manufacturer decided to reduce their sugar. This is a treat, it's a snack, we know we're buying something naughty and nice, don't reduce the sugar and spoil it.

Apparently these Delicious & Light Hot Cross Pies have "real fruit pieces" in them, as opposed to those plastic ones you see on tables in IKEA. I'm in with that, I want a bit of fruit, fruit is good for me. I just want the sugar that goes with it.

The most depressing part about these Delicious & Light Hot Cross Pies was when I opened the box and noticed there was no sugar on the top of them. On taste they were full of mildly spiced fruit reminiscent of hot cross buns. They were light with melt in the mouth pastry. They were a little underwhelming, but probably didn't need much more sugar. They went perfectly well with my afternoon mug of tea, but come on, Mr Kipling, please give me some sugar on top.

Information on the box; Each pie has 192 calories, with 7.3g of fat, 9.4g of sugar, and 0.11g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Mr Kipling Birthday Cake Tarts (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

Birthday cake is quite the trending flavour at the moment, with the added bonus that you don’t need it to be your birthday to enjoy it. The flavour generally means vanilla paired with something like strawberry or raspberry to replicate jam, along with a good hit of sugar for the icing element. Having a strong sweet tooth and missing mince pies post-Christmas, it’s no surprise I picked up a box of Mr Kipling Birthday Cake Tarts.

 

Each box contains four tarts, featuring pastry, raspberry jam, a layer of vanilla sponge, white icing, and colourful candy sprinkles. They look very appealing, and I enjoyed one alongside a nice afternoon cup of coffee.

These tarts are incredibly sweet, a proper sugary indulgence. If you’re not a fan of sweet treats, these might not be for you. The filling is predominantly icing and vanilla, with just enough raspberry jam to evoke the flavour of birthday cake. The different layers create a lovely texture, with the thick icing and crunchy candy sprinkles on top being particularly enjoyable.

Mr Kipling Birthday Cake Tarts are fun, cheerful, and a delightful treat for an afternoon break. No birthday required, I’d happily buy them again!

Pukka Chicken Balti Pie (not Pork) [@NLi10]

 Tonight we are off to the football, without leaving the house!  At Bromsgrove Sporting back when I went we used to get the Balti pies - and they were hot and satisfying. Pukka has realised we'd quite like to try these at home too.

It's barely spicy so suitable for all the family (except maybe nanna) and doesn't contain pork - but putting it in the title will still cause the bots on X to reply to this with vegan replacement ideas.

Looks like all the other Pukka pies

And the inside is decently meaty and smells great.

Add a few veggies and this is a decent meal to watch live sports, or in our case tea-time quizzes.

Branston Pickle Topped Pork Pies (Asda) By @Cinabar

I have to admit, we’re rather missing the ‘picky bits’ selection that Asda had before and during Christmas. We sampled lots of the trays of nibbles, from spicy crispy prawns to cocktail sausages. It was a sad day when we realised all the interesting party food had disappeared for another year. So, we decided to have a look at the regular deli section to see what we could find. That’s where I spotted these Branston Pickle Topped Pork Pies and thought we’d give them a try.

The tricky part of this snack is definitely the topping. It looks lovely but makes transporting it home in a bag or car a bit precarious. They looked much neater in-store, but to be fair, the pickle was still on top when we got home. I gave them a little smoothing out before serving.

When I tried one, I absolutely loved the flavour. The pork is firm, with just the right amount of jelly, i.e. not too much. The pastry is savoury and delicious, and the pickle topping is what really sets these pies apart. The combination of flavours worked so well, adding a lovely spicy, fruity kick. I usually enjoy Branston Pickle with cheese, but this has inspired me to pair it with other foods too.

That said, for easier transport, I think they could’ve put the pickle inside the pastry, though perhaps that would’ve made the pies soggy. Either way, we’ll definitely be picking these BBranston Pickle Topped Pork Pies up again!

Pukka - Doner Kebab Pie [@NLi10]

 It's an odd circle here - chip shops have kebab meat, and sometimes Pukka Pies as the luxury (but affordable) pie.  They are pretty slight though so you'd always have a cone of chips on the side.  Yum.

Now you can get the pies from the chip shop but at home, but filled with meat from the chip shop. Hurrah!

It has three points of spicy, but it's a white person scale so it's a Nando's Medium and fine.

It's a normal pie - and as per the two person one they haven't said exactly how many portions it is 

But we can make it up to a lovely meal with rocket and spuds and carrots.

It's fine inside for the price - but the kebab meat is thin and sparse, but the sauce and the veg means this is a perfectly valid option.  Much better if from the chip shop so the gravy goes on your chips, but then you could probably just get some kebab meat instead!

Pigs In Blankets Quiche (Aldi) @Cinabar

Today is the big day in Aldi. They have launched all their special Christmas items. Some are crazier than others. One of the new items is the Pigs In Blankets ice cream that they have launched. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but my store didn’t have any anyway, so I guess that cleared up the dilemma as to whether I should buy it. I did have a good browse and decided to pick up this Pigs In Blankets Quiche for tea.

I heated it up in the oven and gave it a try. Now I have to say, if you stop and think about this, a ‘pigs in blanket’ is bacon and sausage, and what I’ve effectively bought here is a bacon and sausage quiche, which, when you break it down, is not half as exciting as it sounds to start with. Having said that, this had a delicious meaty flavour, salty bacon, and herby sausage meat. It was a bit of a meat feast in quiche form and made for a simple but tasty tea.

Yes, the flavour of this Pigs In Blankets Quiche is a bit of a novelty, and there weren’t even any pigs in blankets in it, but I’d still buy it again as it was just so nice and meaty. I’m still not sure about the ice cream.

Pieminister Crispy Filo! Souk Chook & Maroc Star [@NLi10]

Pieminister are certainly a favourite - and over the years they've come up with some exciting variations - but maybe non so exciting as using Filo pastry.

I'm not sure exactly what the reason is for this - maybe it's a health thing -but I do love crispy light pastry.  And filling it with Pieminister's signature chunky ingredients has to be great.

They look like big filo parcels - and both have outer decorations too.

Spicy up top, and then more seeds below - both suiting the flavours inside.

Hopefully you can read what's in these - the font to backing didn't really work under my kitchen lights.  Oh no - we'll have to have these again to update the records.

And they look great - a Pieminister is a meal in itself so we tend just to add a few light veggies.  The restaurant tends to over do it with mash.

And as usual the fillings are great quality.  Very unusual with both pies having a star anise - aniseed flavour underneath it all.  This made it quite different in flavour as well as texture and was a nice touch.  Overall these are a little lighter than the traditional short-crust pies but I think there is definitely times when I'd prefer both.

Another one for the repeat purchase list then - a hit in both the meaty and veggie versions.

PUKKA Pies - Chip Shop Chicken Curry Pie (@NLi10)

Pukka Pies are usually pretty reliable, filling and with decent flavours and quality ingredients.  I’m always happy to try new ones - so seeing this chip-shop curry variety was a treat

Essentially (at least in Britain) Chip-Shop curry is just spicy gravy - which is essentially the Japanese Curry ‘Katsu’.  This means that it lacks a kick, but does have. A lovely warm flavour to it.

I mean it doesn’t have that much inside - chicken & potato - but I’m ok with that.  Ordinarily I’d get chips on the side too - that’s the main thing I’m lacking here!

Instead we get crispy potato things, and a few frozen veg - a balanced and healthy meal.

And yeah - there is a lot of ‘growing room’ in the pie here, but in this price category you aren’t usually going to manage to beat Pukka for value.

The pie tastes like a chip-shop chicken curry.  I could have eaten two without much effort - but with the sides it worked well.  Although I really did want chips with it.

Luxury Garden Center Pies from Webb’s for Valentines Day by @NLi10

 For Valentine’s Day we decided to break out the frozen pies we got from Webb’s of Wychbold a few weeks earlier. Pretty expensive, but guaranteed farm shop quality.

My meaty version had some pretty good vital statistics, and is approximately a Christmas pie

Raw pastry!

Add some non potato chips half way through cooking

And get a luxury meal for 2!

Lovely mix of crispy and meaty. The cheese pie was apparently great too!

Fry's Chicken style country pie (Holland & Barrett) by @NLi10

Ah - pies.  So unhealthy, full of all kinds of nonsense.  Unless of course you hunt down the right ones!

Here we have a previously discussed veggie pie - Higgidy Spinach Feta & toasted pine nut - and my chicken pie, only it's Fry's Family Fully Loaded Chicken-Style Country Pie, but 100% vegan.

I'd not spotted the pies before on Ocado - probably because they are fragile things and none would survive the trip in Strawberry van to my house.

It's barely survived the walk back from Bearwood - I had to put all the seeds back on top.  So much nutrition in a pie has to be breaking a rule somewhere right?

It falls to bits once cooked in a very inelegant way - if you don't like seeds then this isn't for you!  You can just about see the Fry's strips all curled up and pretending to be chicken inside the mess.  It works in a 'this is nice food' way, but it's not fooling any carnivores.

For my tastes though it's quite something.  PieMinister haven't got something with quite so many seeds and things going on, so this is certainly a niche worth exploiting.  Lovely rich flavours, great shortcrust pastry and stacked with toppings.  I'll be making special trips for these - and the two I got were reduced too which is amazing!

My partner's Higgidy pie chose to be much more photogenic.  A very cheesy proposition that I'll never understand or try, but is apparently also fantastic and a regular item to be found in our fridge.

So there you have it - pies needn't be greasy and full of horrible things - you can have a nice pie (still with lovely lovely pastry) and be a little bit healthier if you like.

Mr Kipling Eton Mess Bakewell Tarts (Morrisons) By @Cinabar

These new Eton Mess Bakewell Tarts from Mr Kipling are part of the summer range. They are a twist on a regular Bakewell Tart and have the addition of pink icing, fruit jam and meringue, to give the feel of the summer dessert. There are six pink pies in the pack, and they look very pretty and tempting.
They are in metal foil cases, and were difficult to get out of these as the pastry kept crumbling around the edges, I could tell the pastry was very soft. They were a little difficult to serve.

I gave one a try and found that these Eton Mess Bakewell Tarts were all about the pastry, and for my tastes there was too much of it. The distinctive flavour of Bakewell Tart was muted by the flour and pastry flavour and the Eton Mess addition.
There was a hint of raspberry jam, but any fruit flavour was difficult to pick up on. I liked the crunchy meringue on the top, this added a good mix of textures. These Bakewell Tarts look lovely, and would be fab packed on a picnic. They are sweet and pleasant, but I couldn’t help thinking I preferred the more distinctive flavour of regular Bakewell Tarts. I’ve never been a big pastry fan, but can normally cope if the filling is strong or plentiful, these weren’t particularly. I guess this is why deep filled mince pies are my favourite.

Heston Spiced Shortcrust Mince Pies With A Lemon Twist (Waitrose) By @Cinabar

Okay so I’m well and truly in the Christmas swing of things now, and although I haven’t put the tree up yet I have purchased mince pies! The Heston range from Waitrose usually brings something different to a food product and this year the additional flavour to the mince pies is lemon. This doesn’t sound as adventurous as some of his previous creations (think curry and sugar popcorn), but it does sound like it would work.

The mince pies look rather impressive, they are quite large, and have a fab crumble on top. The crumble pieces are quite big, but they have the texture of soft pastry, and are lovely and buttery. The pastry case is quite dark looking, and must be where some of the spice infusion hits, as these mince pies are full on. As someone who loves cinnamon, these pies come with a strong hit of it and all the other christmas spices. This to me was more noticeable than the lemon, which came as a refreshing zingy aftertaste. The mince filling looks quite thin, but again its rich flavours come through beautifully.
The flavours from these mince pies are strong, if like me you love your christmas spices, they are definitely worth picking up. They are very different too and certainly posh enough to serve as a proper dessert, rather than just and accompaniment to coffee. I’ll certainly be picking more of these up throughout the seasonal period. Mmm cinnamon.

Key Lime Pie (Marks and Spencers) By @Cinabar

We recently watched an episode of Dexter which was about trying to find the best Key Lime Pie, one worth dying for. Dexter is a macabre tv show, and I’m not sure the take-home message should have been a desire to eat Key Lime Pie, but that is where it left us. In the UK Key Lime Pie isn’t a popular dessert, and we had to compromise with a Key Lime Pie “flavour” pudding from Gu, which was fabulous by the way. This dessert fuelled our desire to try a proper Key Lime Pie. We then got news that a new restaurant was opening near us, the American style Hickory’s Smokehouse, and on its menu was a classical Key Lime Pie. Before we got a chance to try their Key Lime Pie the restaurant had a major fire (nobody was hurt thankfully) but it's going to be closed for a while.

We were back to square one, until I spotted this gorgeous looking Key Lime Pie in Marks and Spencers.
This pie still isn’t technically a pie, it is more like a cheesecake. There is a biscuit base, with a large layer of thick mousse on top. After some googling it does turn out that there are quite a few variations on what an actual Key Lime Pie is, and some do have biscuit bases while others have a pastry, some have meringue on top as well.
The taste of this Key Lime Pie, was outstanding. It had the perfect balance of flavours, there is loads of zesty lime flavour, balanced to perfection with the creamy topping. The mix of sweet, acidic and cream worked very well. The biscuit base added a nice wholesome flavour, and the whole dessert was just gorgeous. The sprinkle of lime rind on top added to the flavour as well as looking pretty.
Maybe it's not quite worth dying for, but it certainly is worth picking one up as a fabulous treat.

Linda McCartney's Vegetarian "Chicken" and Leek Pies (@NLi10)

As a predominately veggie household we buy a lot of meat free food. We do mostly buy the bits to make our own, but it's more realistic to review the pre made things we get for convenience meals.

We tend to avoid the Linda McCartney brand purely because their goal seems to be to make things that can trick meat eaters into eating non meat products. I don't understand this because they rarely meet up to the expectations. My partner dislikes them because she doesn't want to eat meat - so why would she get something pretending to be meat.

These pies looked like a good opportunity to see what was the current state of the brand.

No mistake - these look good. Well photographed and with nice bright, clear modern packaging I'm happy to try them.  Deliciously comforting is a very strange phrase that sounds like something Montgomery Burns from The Simpsons might say. A bit freaky. 

As these look suspiciously meaty and as such will sit at the back of the food queue I sneak them onto the menu one evening when I'm staring food while my partner is out. They take a long time to cook from frozen but at least have the decency to smell great while doing so.

For those that are interested here are the vital statistics. Comparatively healthy compared to the meat versions.

First up the pastry is good. Not PieMinister good, and not like the pub pies I'd had the night before in the Old Joint Stock Birmingham, but this isn't cheap stuff and you'd not know that it was veggie. The sauce is creamy enough, and the veggie bits are good.

The fake chicken is for me where it falls down. This soy protein is a little rubbery for my liking, and it's not got either texture or flavour that it could.  You are manufacturing the soy, and sealing it in its cooking environment. Why not mix the herbs in with it to both improve the flavour and the texture? I get that this is not what happens with real chicken, but I guarantee if the top chefs could breed animals where the flavour was baked in then they would. It baffles me that some brands choose to accept the artificial limitations of meat and aim to match those.

I did enjoy this pie, I could have done more veggies for a side dish but didn't think to. I think if we'd have been presented with a chunky veg instead of the soy (or the soy meatball idea above) then I'd be coming back for more. As it stands I'll just get his and hers pies from another range where there is more going on inside.

It was however better than I'd initially feared or remembered so the second frozen parcel shall wait until I can give it a fair try too.

For now it is festival season...