Alfez - Harissa Kebab Wrap Kit [@NLi10]

 We love meal kits in this house - and picking up a new one is a voyage of discovery.  Alfez has shown up in a few places and figured we'd give it a try.

We like harissa and even without the chicken (veggie version today!) and as usual all the stuff is in the box - we are just proving that not all wraps have to be Mexican!

And it comes out looking like this!

Of course you can wrap it all together to make it easier to eat, but that's a boring picture.

The flavours here were really interesting and even the wrap was decent quality - and when we went shopping a few days afterwards I picked up a second one for another day.

Caramelised Biscuit Cupcake Baking Kit (Aldi) By @Cinabar

I do love the trend for caramelised biscuits, so when I spotted this box of a Caramelised Biscuit Cupcake Baking Kit in Aldi, I knew I had to give it a go. This is a quick bake for me, which is quite helpful as things have been super busy. My day job is taking up a lot of my time, and Spectre also has new ventures that he has been needing a hand with. So I bought a quick-bake kit to give us a treat.

 

Inside the box, we have a cake mix, an icing mix, some cup cake cases, and a biscuit crumb.

To start off, we mix the cake mix with an egg and some water, I gave it a good whisk, and then dollop the mix into the cupcake cases, it makes six. These looked good after they were baked.

Once it cooled, I made the icing. This was just a case of mixing the icing mix with the butter, this took a bit of work with a wooden spoon, but soon changed colour and turned into a caramel-coloured icing.

I piped the icing on top. I bake a lot, but I am surprisingly bad at anything artistic, that’s not my thing. I find it easier to make a perfect Italian focaccia bread than to decorate a cake, so these were not as pretty as the picture.

Having said that the last stage covered this a little, I sprinkled the biscuit crumb on top. They did look quite nice with that on top.

Taste wise these were gorgeous. The quick bake resulted in a tasty, moist sponge and the most gorgeous spiced biscuit flavour icing. They had a good caramel flavour and left us wanting to eat a second one. A lovely kit that was quick to bake and still looked fancy and tasted good.

Baked In Bagel Baking Kit (Ocado) By @Cinabar

I felt like a bit of baking and I liked the idea of trying to make something new. I have used the Bake In kits a fair bit and they always seem to work quite well and have pre-measured packs for ease. There isn’t anything pre-prepared for you, just measured dried ingredients and the recipe.

I followed the instructions and added the flour to a bowl, as well as the yeast and sugar and salt, mixing all of that together. I then added some warm water a bit at a time until it formed a dough. I kneaded it and left it to rise. This took nearly 90 minutes, if you aren’t used to making bread you need to include rising time.

After the dough has doubled in size you split it into six equal pieces, roll them into a ball, then put the end of a wooded spoon though the ball and spin the dough on the handle to create the bagel shape. I have to say this was not easy and my bagels didn’t look particularly even afterwards, but I did my best. Once shaped, set them aside for 10 minutes while you boil some water in a pan. The bagel dough balls each need soaking in the boiling water before being dried off and baked.

Mine was baked exactly to time and looked nice and brown, but still not equal in shape. Oh well, add some cream cheese and smoked salmon and the uneven shapes no longer mattered, they were a lovely treat.

Chiquito Churros (Iceland) By @Cinabar

It is time for dessert. This is all about having the restaurant treat of Chiquito’s Churros at home, not from some delivery service but straight from the freezer and ready to go. I have a thing for cinnamon, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I’m a fan of Churros. I couldn’t resist picking up this box of goodies.

Inside the box of Chiquito Churros we have the Churros themselves, some cinnamon sugar and a pot of chocolate sauce. The sauce is warmed through by putting it into some hot water to defrost. The Churros are baked in the oven for 10mins and then dusted with sugar. I checked on the Churros after 8mins and they looked okay to last a couple more but they were sizzling when they came out at 10 mins.

I let them cool a little, then we are ready to dip them into the sauce. I gave the first Chiquito Churro and a generous plunge into the chocolate sauce and the sauce was all I could taste. Unfortunately, it turns out the sauce isn’t the best thing in this kit, it was syrupy, overly concentrated, and reminiscent of a 1990s milkshake mix. It almost took on the flavour of liquorice. The next bite I had was the Chiquito Churro just on its own, and it was a lovely, warm, sweet, sugary, spicey dough taste, and an absolute delight. I tried the dip again, less is more and once I got used to the flavour a bit I could handle it. Sadly though for me the sauce is the reason I wouldn’t buy them again, as good as the doughnut part actually are they needed a better dip.

Ginger and Spice Cake (The Bake Off Box) By @Cinabar

Today we are having a go at making a Ginger and Spice Cake kit that I received as a Christmas gift, from The Bake Off Box. The kit was purchased online by mum and the delivery was slow, it was ordered in November and arrived jus before Christmas, but it did arrive. It is branded with the ‘Bake Off’ logo, and is the official product. I opened up the box and was a little bit worried by just how complicated the cake looked in the pictures! I don’t have those sort of skills! :-D I absolutely love that the kit has a Bake Off apron in the box, that is so smart and I put it on in the hope it would increase my baking skills.

There is a 34 section instruction manual to follow, again quite daunting, but I started at the beginning and decided to just follow it through. I have used baking kits before and up until now they all have one thing in common, everything is pre weighed out for you. Not in this kit, this kit requires scales to measure out the sugar, flour, spices etc, and every stage everything had to be weighed and sieved. I started off by making the sponge, weighing it all out and whisking and folding. 

This went quite well as I do bake cakes a fair bit. The sponge mix was split between two tins (not included) and put in the oven. Next up for the cake decorations was the ginger bread mix. I don’t make biscuits that often, and was a bit confused by only needing a tablespoon of egg white, which was a bit faffy to sort but I did. This went in the fridge to chill, while the sponges finished off.

The next step was the making of the buttercream (I ended up washing and reusing the bowls/whisk so often during this whole process). While the sponges cooled I traced around the gingerbread template on to greaseproof paper. I rolled the biscuit dough out and cut some gingerbread house shapes. I didn’t do Christmas trees as it felt like we have passed that point. The biscuits went in the oven to bake, while this was happening I filled the cake with buttercream, and make an attempt to smother the cake in buttercream all over. I’m not very neat, but it looked ok! Once the biscuits were cooked and cooled I decorated them and put them on the cake. 

I know my icing skills are basic, but it still looked ok! It tasted amazing though. Fluffy moist sponge, and loads of spice. It was stunning! This isn’t your usual simple cake to make, but it was worth it for a special occasion.

Wright’s Cheddar and Tomato Bread Mix (@wrightsflour Ocado) By @Cinabar

I bake a lot of Focaccia bread from scratch, I bake it so often that I actually stopped putting the pictures on Instagram (at Foodstuff_Finds) as I was worried it might be being a bit repetitive. Each loaf looks the same. I already had fresh rosemary in the fridge (for the Focaccia) but remembered I had a ordered this Wright’s Cheddar and Tomato Bread Mix kit as a quick and easy alternative. I decided to give it a go, and why not on a bank holiday.

I added the entire packet of the mix to a bowl, and measured the appropriate amount of warm water and tipped it straight in. Initially I mixed it together with a wooden spoon but it soon came together and I used my hands to form a ball. Then I had to let it rest for five minute, knead it for a couple more and rest it for another five. Actually quite simple.

Then I popped the dough straight into the tin to rise, I put it near our heater just for a bit of extra warmth. The dough rose really well after 30 minutes.

Then all you do is bake it the oven, this Wright’s Cheddar and Tomato Bread Mix really was a simple kit. I added the rosemary for decoration before it went into the oven. The loaf smelled lovely while it was cooking.

It came out looking super and the bread was lovely and fluffy. We had slices when they were still warm with butter melting in. There was a mild flavour from the cheese and tomato, but enough to give the bread a lovely edge while not taking away from the fabulous flavour of freshly baked bread. This was such a simple bread mix to make and results were brilliant, definitely something I’ll buy again.

Harry’s Ramsden’s World Famous Fish and Chips Frozen (Iceland) By @Cinabar

Over the years I’ve eaten at Harry’ Ramsden’s Fish and Chips often, one of our favourite places was the branch overlooking Cardiff Bay. Restaurants have had a difficult time recently with the pandemic and I know there are less branches now of this chain but they have expanded and you can now pick up frozen versions of their meals. They are an Iceland exclusive and I couldn’t wait to give them a try at home.

I picked up all three items to give these the full home experience; I’ve got Harry’s Ramsden’s Salt and Vinegar Jumbo Battered Cod, Mushy Peas and Chip Shop Chips. The fish and the chips are cooked in the oven and the mushy peas are warmed in the microwave. While they were cooking I was most impressed by the aroma, it smelt amazing in the kitchen, the fish and the salt and the pepper were all in the air, it smelt like the restaurants.

These passed the tasted test too with flying colours, the fish had a lovely batter, crispy and with a nice flavour and perfectly seasoned. The chips were some of the best oven chips I’ve tried, and the mushy peas are so much better than our local chip shop. Our local chip shop does a good fish but the ideal mushy peas do seem to escape them. This was such a good meal and one we are defiantly buying again. It is a traditional Friday treat and I do hope the frozen food idea works out for the brand.

Meals For All - Freshly Cooked Authentic Food #Gifted By @Cinabar

Happy Good Friday everyone, I hope you have been able to enjoy some of the nice weather this bank holiday. We were threatened with snow but have so far had lovely sunshine, but it is Britain so anything is possible yet this Easter weekend! We are having a curry tonight though and it was very kindly sent for us to try from the lovely people at Meals For All. They make and delivery restaurant quality food which you can heat and eat straight away or freeze for another day. They are delivered chilled. When you order from them for every meal purchased they donate a meal to the needy, which is such a wonderful way of working. They started because of Covid19 but I hope they go on to flourish long into the future.

We chose a selection of curries, rice and some onion bhaji and some naan. My choice to start us off was the Prawn Bhuna Curry which I had with yellow rice. To heat the dish you simply zap the curry in the microwave for 4 minutes so it is very quick and simple. The curry was a very good quality. The prawns were still moist and juicy and they took on all the lovely rich spices. There was a nice bit of heat and the tomato based curry was restaurant standard, by the end of the meal I was using the naan bread to mop up every last drop of the spicy sauce. The onion bhaji was lovely too, full of flavour. I like that the website lists all the ingredients of the dishes too and I can’t wait to try more from them. This made such a nice Friday night treat and it is from such a wonderfully ethical brand too. I was lucky enough to be gifted my first order but can’t wait to choose some more dishes for the future and the freezer. If you want to try them out, please take a look at: https://mealsforallshop.org.uk

Bakedin Rainbow Cake Kit (Moon Pig) By @Cinabar

This fantastic looking Bakedin Rainbow Cake Kit came as a birthday present back in January from my brother and family. I think there might have been a hope that I would bake the rainbow Cake when they visited, unfortunately though the use-by was edging closer so I had to make it without them. We could call it is trial run. I also had the day off work so what better plan that to give myself a fun baking project and to stop worrying about what emails are waiting in my work inbox.

So the Bakedin Rainbow Cake Kit arrived with all the dry ingredients and the four foil baking trays as well a cake board and some grease proof paper. I simply added the fresh ingredients butter, milk and four eggs. 

To make the kit you start with the first bag of dry mix and add butter which is mixed in until it looks like bread crumbs. I rubbed this in and ended up with coloured fingers.

Next you add an egg and a drop of milk and whisk until you have a fluffy looking cake batter. There are four bags of dry cake mix and you have to repeat the process four times. The strong colours this means that everything needs washing (bowl / whisk / spoon / hands etc) every time in between. Once you have the batter you pour it into the foil baking trays which you’ve greased and lined with baking paper.

Next you bake them for 20-25 minutes. The colour of the cakes makes it difficult to judge when they are ready so I did the skewer test to make sure they came away clean. Then leave the cakes to cool in their tins, before turning out to cool some more. Never ice a hot cake, we’ve all watch The Bake Off.

Once they are cool you mix the icing bag with butter and whisk until fluffy. I am not skilled in neat cake decorating but I followed the instructions, a layer of of sponge topped with a layer of icing and repeat until all four layers are stacked and then you add the icing all around the edge too, finally topping it with rainbow sprinkles. If you can’t bake neatly I have discovered rainbow sprinkles and or edible glitter are heaven sent.

Next came the moment of truth and the cutting in to see how the sponges turned and what the colour looked like. I was really pleased, they were fairly bright and all looked pretty even. This is an amazing cake and I realise it is an even cake but in my head it is belated birthdays cake. The height of the cake in impressive too, it is a proper party piece. The flavour was wonderful and despite the four different cake batter was fairly easy to make with impressive results. Here is hoping the next time I make it all the family can share.

Capsicana Latin Flavour - Mexican Chilli & Honey Fajita Kit - veggied (@NLi10)

We like meal kits, and luxury meal kits are basically a take-away that you cook yourself.  I'm happy to spend a little bit more to get a luxury experience.

I'm not sure where we got this from, probably Co-Op as it's got the great taste logo.

Cook stuff, add sachets, heat the pancakes and done!

This has a lot of spicy goodness, and is vegetarian (contains Honey, which the bees can't be asked to give up voluntarily so not vegan).

The contents of the box are really unimpressive, it's just brown goo and tortilla!  They folded the tortilla to make the box half the size - this is smart and I approve.

One big bowl of chopped veggies - and some tomatoes for the salsa

You cook the veggies a bit, add the big sachet, then let them marinade.  Meanwhile you chop the tomato and mix it with the spicy, spicy salsa.

We added squeezey guacamole.

And here is the result!

See how thick those tortilla are!  These are luxury indeed and so much more satisfying than the generic meal-kit.

The sauce wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped, but was really nice and something I plan to have again.  The salsa was a little too spicy for my partner which meant that after I'd finished my two wraps I got to eat the rest with a spoon which was amazing.  A bit tangy, but worth it.  No wonder I can't taste some other more delicate things anymore.

Like usual, I think i'd try more in this range before bouncing back to the original.  And maybe be a little more prepared - onion for the insides and tomato puree for the salsa would have made this even more special.

Staying in is the new going out so maybe we'll get chance to try these sooner than expected!

 

Spice Tailor - Malabar Biryani - home meal kit - veggie modifications (@NLi10)

We like eating out to help out, but sometimes eating in to stay in your comfy clothes is required.

Meal kits are ace - they basically give you all the awkward bits and you do the personalisation.

Here we get everything except the veggies and 'meat' - the rice is included too!

Mughlai food is amazing, and all I need to do is add some coconut oil and some Quorn pretending to be chicken.

Easy as 1-2-3!

1.  Fry the dry stuff a bit to unleash it's power

2a Brown the Quorn so it sucks in all the flavours

2b - curry paste goes in!

and a little water to make it more of a sauce

3. plonk on the rice and play video games for 15 mins.

dinner!  Ok so i'm not getting presentation points from the judges - and the Quorn is a little brown on one side due to the nature of it.  Flavours are all still intact though, and lovely!

I wasn't sure if I should take the spices out so we had crunchy bits and a lovely chilli to eat too.  I didn't chop it up so it wasn't too powerful for my partner.

Worked great though - very little fuss and something you could easily do for the adults and then while it cooks do something less potent for the little ones.  Overall I do love this range of meal kits, and they are a lovely bridge between delivery food and doing home cooking from scratch.