Kent's Kitchen: Spicy Korma Kit

This spicy Korma kit from Kent's Kitchen is award winning for a reason. I have never tasted such a flavoursome home-made curry before.

Spicy Korma Kit, Chicken, Veggies, Coconut Milk

The beauty of the kit is that you get a flavoured oil to cook your chicken and/or Vegetables, a curry paste to cook through then a spice pot to add at the end. Just provide the Chicken and Veg and a tin of coconut milk.

Method: Chop up your chicken and/or vegetables. Add the Garlic Oil to a hot pan and first seal your chicken (if using)

Add the vegetables and cook for a few minutes.

Add the Korma paste and cook for 5 more minutes.

Finally add the coconut milk and spice pot and simmer until your rice or other accompanying dish is ready.

Tip: In the winter you will find you coconut milk may solidify, just pop the tin in some warm water before opening. I added mine to the washing up bowl!






Result:

 A very tasty, fresh curry. I will definately be trying the other kits in the range.


Recipe Score:



Also a great price at £2.30

Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin With Peppercorn Sauce

Following the Pork theme of my last recipe HelloFresh seem to be quite generous with the pork!

For this recipe and the Spiced Pork Skewers I only needed 300g of pork fillet but was sent at least 600g so  an looking forward to making them both again.

300g Pork Fillet, 450g potatoes, 4 Rashers Streaky Bacon, 100ml Milk, 1 Clove of Garlic, 3 Tbsp Double Cream, 1 Beef Oxo cube, 3 Tbsp diced Shallot, 150g Broccoli, 1/2Tbsp Black Peppercorns

As usual chop everything up; Peel and finely dice the garlic and shallot, peel the potatoes and chop into just smaller than golf ball size pieces.

Boil two pans of water, with a pinch of salt in each, and add you potatoes to one of them. Let them boil for 10-15 minutes until soft throughout and drain.

lay the bacon out, overlapping the edges to make a sheet to wrap your pork loin in. place the loin on end and roll carefully into a giant pig in blanket.

Heat a pan with a tablespoon of oil then seal your pork roll and let brown a little on all sides.

Slice the roll into discs about 2cm thick then pop them back in the hot pan and fry for 90 seconds on each side. Let rest on a warm plate.

fry the shallots and garlic in the pan containing your pork juices then add half the stock cube and 200mls of water. Allow to simmer until reduced by half then crush the pepper corns and add these plus the cream to the pan. Leave bubbling until thick.

Now cook your broccoli for 3 minutes in the second pan of boiling water and mash your potatoes with the milk, a nob of butter and a little salt to taste.

Serve the pork on top of the mashed potatoes with a good splash of sauce and broccoli on the side.

Result:

A little bit fiddly rolling up the pork and bacon but worth it in the end.

An impressive dish with lots of flavours.

Recipe score:

Decadent Wild Mushrooms and Truffle Macaroni

This was a very luxurious twist on a normal macaroni cheese and also suitable for vegetarians (depending on cheese). I usually make a spring version of macaroni with bacon, leeks and peas.

The HelloFresh! recipe card layout has changed slightly since I last had a box, I'm not sure if it is better or about the same!

250g Macaroni, 100g Wild Mushrooms, 25g Butter, 250ml Milk, 25g Plain Flour, 80g Cheddar Cheese, 1/2 Tsp Mustard, 1/4 Tsp Truffle oil, 30g Breadcrumbs 150g Broccoli

First I grated the cheese and put 2 pans of water on to boil. I added the pasta to one of the boiling pans with a pinch of salt and rubbed any dirt off of the wild mushrooms, don't wash as this will affect the flavour.

I pulled my mushrooms apart into managable chunks as some were quite big or joined and then fried in a little olive oil until softened.

In a large pan I melted the butter and added the flour, once the flour had slighly cooked through I added a dash of milk, stirring well and slowly adding the milk till you have a thinner paste, stir until all the lumps are gone and add the rest of the milk. This is a roux and is a great white sauce base for many recipes. Finally add 2/3 of your cheese the mustard and truffle oil and cook on a low heat until the sauce coats a wooded spoon easily.

I then added my pasta and mushrooms to the sauce and put the broccoli in  the remaining pan of boiling water. Heating the grill to high I transferred my pasta and sauce into an oven dish, topped with breadcrumbs and the remaining cheese and grilled until brown.

Serve with the broccoli!

Result:

This wash such a lovely rich version of macaroni cheese that I will definitely be looking for where to get wild mushrooms in the future. My other half didnt even notice that there was no meat tonight!

Recipe score:

Speedy Chicken Kiev with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Broccoli

This is another HelloFresh! recipe with new ingredients. I've never had much success with sweet potatoes so was a bit worried that I would end up with mushy sweet potato chunks at the end but this went better than I thought.
 If you've enjoyed the Hello fresh recipes you have seen so far then you can download a whole book of them at: http:///hellofreshrecipes.co.uk/recipe-book-download/

2 Chicken breasts, 400g Sweet potato, 350g Broccoli, 2 Cloves of Garlic, 20g Breadcrums, 2 tblsp cream cheese, 1 tsp italian herbs

As we have all learnt by now the first task is to put on the oven and chop up all the ingredients.

The oven needs to be heated to 190 degrees.

The broccoli should be separated into florets, sweet potatoes into wedges and the garlic finely chopped.

The sweet potato needs plenty of time to roast so toss this in some oil with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and pop onto the top shelf of the oven.

Next I mixed together the cream cheese, quarter of the garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper.

I made a slit in the fattest end of the chicken breasts and using my fingers made a large enough hole to squish my cream cheese mixture into. This was quite messy but don't worry, it its really not working well extend the slit down the side a little as long as you get most of your mixture inside the chicken.

Once the chicken was filled I mixed the remaning garlic, bread crumbs and italian herbs in a bowl and rolled my chicken in it so it was well coated. I then popped them onto a tray and put them in the oven for  25 minutes.

Keep an eye on the sweet potato so that it doesn't burn but try not to move the wedges around too much unless you have to, that when it gets broken up!

Finally I steamed the broccoli in a steamer, if you don't have one you can use a metal colander on top of a pan of water with the lid on top!


And Serve!

 

Result:

The chicken was lovely and moist, the sweet potato was crispy and the broccoli tasted nice and fresh.

This recipe was actually easier than I thought so I definately wont be buying ready made, hollow kieves in future!

 

 

Recipe score:

Apple and Blackberry Crumble

I went blackberry picking on Sunday and collected way more blackberries that I knew what to do with!

First I thought I'd make an Apple blackberry crumble! This is such an easy dish to make on a Sunday afternoon, you don't need to be accurate at all with the fruit mixture just use whatever you've got, plus I've not yet come across anyone who doesn't eat crumble.

3 Large Cooking Apples, 150g Blackberries, 250g Caster Sugar, 200g Plain Flour, 150g Unsalted Butter

Pre-heat the Oven to 200°C.

To start I peeled my cooking apples and put them in a pan with 30mls water, 150g sugar (or to taste) and 50g of butter on a medium heat. With the lid on I let them stew slowly until they started to soften, I then added the 150g blackberries. I stirred slowly until all the fruit was soft then took it off the heat.

To make the Crumble all you need to measure is 1-1-2. One part sugar, one part Butter to two parts flour. I went with 100g Sugar, 100g Butter and 200g Plain Flour.

Measure out the flour and sugar first and stir well. then add the butter in small cubes. Now the fun part, get your hands in there and rub the butter into the flour until the mixture is as fine as bread crumbs. If you've never done this before you are literally rubbing the butter and flour mixture between your thumbs and finger tips to break up the butter and mix with the flour and sugar.

Once done put the fruit in the bottom of a dish and top with the crumble mixture. You can finish with a sprinkle of brown sugar if you have some then pop in the oven for 20 minutes or until browning on top.

If you really hate soggy crumble pour off some of the liquid from your fruit before adding the crumble. This liquid can also make a really nice sauce or sorbet!

Pad's Thai with Tiger Prawns and Tamarind

Another lovely tiger prawn HelloFresh! Recipe, next week I will be reviewing Gousto to see how the services compare.

I didn't know what tamarind was until I picked up this recipe (for those who still do not know it's a fruit used in Worcestershire and HP sauce) but it fit perfectly into my aim of trying new food and ingredients.

150g Tiger Prawns, 2 Nests of Noodles, I Tbsp Tamarind Sauce, 1 Tsp Muscavado Sugar, 1 Tbsp Soya Sauce, 1 stock cube, 1 Tbsp Peanuts, 1 Tsp Red chilli, 1 Cup of Beansprouts, 1 Cup Coriander, Half a Tbsp Ginger, 2 Cloves Garlic,           3 Spring Onions, 1 Lime

As with the Other HelloFresh! Recipes we start by chopping up all the ingredients (garlic, chilli, ginger, spring onions), make sure to separate the white part of the spring onion from the green, and crush your peanuts.

Mix together your Tamarind Sauce, Soya sauce and the Muscavado sugar in a bowl and put to one side.

Dissolve your stock cube in a pan of boiling water, add the noodles and cook until al dente, drain and keep a couple of tablespoons of the water.
(or you could just leave a little in the bottom of the pan when draining, that's what I did!)

Heat up a tablspoon of oil in a pan and cook the ginger chilli and garlic of 30 seconds before adding the white spring onions and prawns. Cook until the prawns turn pink then add the noodles and stir in your sauce (add the extra liquid from the noodles now if you set it to one side rather than being lazy like me). give it a good toss for a few minutes.

Finally take off the heat and add the bean-sprouts and squeeze half of the juice of a lime over the top.

Serve in heated bowls with the coriander, green spring onion and peanuts sprinkled on top.

Result:

 

The prawns and noodles were lovely but there were a few too many flavours for me. The combination of chilli, garlic, spring onions, lime and coriander left a confusing taste. The crunch of the peanuts was great but I would probably leave out the lime and coriander next time.

 

Recipe Score:

 A lovely fresh dish but too many flavours happening at once!

 

The Ferrari of Zesty Orange Beef Stir Fry

This is my second recipe from Hello Fresh! it's really a different take on a recipe I usually cook at home. Usually I would buy ready cut up beef, some veg and a sauce but this recipe has a lot more flavour and isn't as tricky as it looks.

200g Flank Steak, 1 Orange, 2 nests of Egg Noodles, 80g Mange Tout, 1 teaspoon Muscavado Sugar, 2 cloves of Garlic, knob of Ginger, 1 Lime, 1 teaspoon Sesame Seeds, 4 tablespoons of Cornflour, 1 tablespoon of Soy Sauce, 1 Red Chilli

As with the Tiger Prawn Linguine recipe, first I chopped up the ingredients; chilli, garlic and ginger. The skin of the ginger can be peeled off with a spoon(!) before chopping. Zest a quarter of a teaspoon of orange and squeeze half the juice. Next I mixed together the orange juice, zest, soya sauce, and sugar in a small bowl.

I then sliced the beef thinly and coated in cornflour with a pinch of salt and pepper before stir frying the beef for 2 minutes and taking off the heat. Boil the noodles in a pan of hot water for four minutes. Finally cook the ginger, garlic, chilli and mange tout for 2 minutes before adding the beef, noodles and sauce.

Mix it all up and serve with the sesame seeds sprinkled on top!

Result:

Again Hello Fresh! delivered a dish full of flavour. The ginger really stands out and this time I didn't add too much spice as the fresh chilli was quite mild and I removed the seeds! (leave the seeds in if you like a bit of kick)

Recipe Score:

I could have made something similar with a ready made sauce but the ginger and fresh chilli are worth adding.

Tiger Prawn Linguine with Chilli and Sun-dried Tomato

This is my first attempt at a recipe from Hello Fresh!, a home delivery company which supplies you with ingredients and recipes to make fresh restaurant quality meals at home in half an hour!

I love prawns and my fiancé has only just started eating prawns so I was really pleased to get this recipe in my first box of goodies.

My "Hello Fresh!" ingredients and recipe ready to cook

The first part of the recipe was to chop up all my ingredients: garlic, onion, sun-dried tomatoes and parsley. This is actually a really good method, obvious, but it really makes the rest of the cooking easy as you don't have to stop to prepare anything later.

Next the garlic onion, sun-dried tomatoes and chilli went into a hot pan with a little oil. Once the onion was soft I added a tin of tomatoes and half a teaspoon of sugar, then let it bubble while I popped the linguine into a pan of boiling water. Add raw prawns to the tomato sauce, drain linguine, and toss together with the parsley.

Result:

The dish was full of flavour but very hot; when it said add the chilli I poured the whole little cup in rather than just a pinch! The result was very hot but still demolished quickly just with plenty of water.

We both really enjoyed this recipe and I would definitely make this dish again but be careful with the chilli flakes!

Recipe Score:

 

(please note: my own cooking probably deserved a 4 but it wasn't the recipe's fault that I can't read "pinch"!)

Hello Fresh!

Hello Fresh is advertised as a high quality service for busy people. Every week(or fortnight if you choose) they will send you a box of ingredients and recipe cards. Everything you need to prepare fresh meals in about half an hour. You are expected to have salt, pepper, oil and butter otherwise everything you need is provided.

I decided to try this service with a discount code for my first order. (use Z3548X to get £20 off)

Hello Fresh - 3 meals for two people

 

How easy was it to order?

The website is modern, clean and very clear.  Navigating the site you can find out about Hello Fresh, what to expect in your box and even free access to their recipes.

Ordering is a simple as clicking "try now", enter your postcode and select your box choice (3 meals, 5 meals or 3 vegetarian  meals. Next choose how many people you are feeding, how often you want a box. I chose a 3 meal box for 2 people once a fortnight. This option is £39 for 3 meals but you can get a £20 discount on your first delivery.

Finally register your details, enter the payment bits and enter your discount coupon (£20 off!).
I've included my code below but if you have a friend subscribed you can use theirs and both benefit!

Delivery and Packaging

My box arrived as promised on Tuesday. It was packaged in a sturdy box, with wool insulation and ice packs. 

The wool is used as an eco-friendly option and can be used for composting etc. if you remove the plastic wrap. The box as you would expect can be recycled in your household recycling bin

What's in the box?

My box included recipes for Tiger Prawn Linguine with Chilli and Sun-Dried Tomatoes, The Ferrari of Orange Beef stir Fries, and grilled Lamb Pittas with Cucumber Salsa and Summer Salad.

I was also please to receive a complimentary bar of chocolate with my first delivery!

The ingredients were well packaged down to the little brown bag of bits and pieces such as chilli flakes, soy sauce and brown sugar.

Everything lasted well ecept for my pitta bread which went mould on the 3rd day but HelloFresh customer service apologised and gave me £5 off my next box.

I will post my  cookery attempts separately!

Ratings

 Delivery - Free delivery but only on a set day

Packaging - Lots of packaging but most is recyclable 

Quality & Taste - Really good quality ingredients 

despite my pitta going mouldy!

Value for Money - Quite pricey for the average family but not bad considering the effort involved in sourcing ingredients and cost of eating out.

Other comments: I liked that this service encouraged me to try recipes that I wouldn't usually try and new ingredients which I wouldn't usually buy.

     Overall Rating: