Product reviews

Pieminister pies

helenka — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:40:36 +0000

The people at Pieminister have happened on something pretty special – gorgeous pie recipes. Their hand made, golden-topped pies have been selling on their stand at Borough Market since 2004, and even the Queen has had a taste of Pieminister fare.

Their range of pies all have affectionate names, and we got our mouths around the Matador Pie, Heidi Pie, Mr Porky Pie and the rather grand sounding Chicken of Aragon Pie. The chicken pie was pretty special, not least for the addition of Vermouth in its ingredients list, whilst the Matador satisfied our carnivorous side with its filling of free range British beef steak and chorizo. All of the pies are wrapped up in a very decent pastry covering and although they taste good cold, they really come into their own after 20 minutes in the oven at 180 degrees C. There’s nothing more satisfying when its cold and drab in the winter, than pulling a properly crafted pie out of the oven and devouring it.

You might have eaten your way though one of Pieminister’s offerings if you’ve been on the festival trail in the UK recently. Pieminister have had stalls running at Glastonbury, The Big Chill, Bestival and WOMAD, so the chances are that your belly may already have had the pleasure. If you haven’t stuffed one of these strapping pies into your mouth yet, you can get your hands on them at Borough Market of course, as well as Whole Foods, Harvey Nichols and Waitrose.

Galler pure cocoa

helenka — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:43:44 +0000

This ground cocoa powder from Galler contains 20% cocoa butter for a silkier consistency. It makes for a great store cupboard baking essential, and also makes a proper cup full of hot chocolate. We tried it this way:

Mix two heaped teaspoons of the cocoa into a small pan and add a drop of milk, stirring with a spoon until you get a thick paste. Then add enough milk for one mug of hot chocolate and flick the heat onto low. Keep a watchful eye on the pan and make sure the milk doesn’t boil. Add a little sugar to taste if you like, or a few squares of couverture or decent chocolate to the pan. Wait until the chocolate and/or sugar has melted and combined, then the contents of the pan will be ready to serve up in a decent-sized mug.

Galler’s cocoa has a really chocolaty flavour to it, without much bitterness so you may find you don’t have to add too much sugar or additional chocolate if you like a deep cocoa hit. A lovely little bag of cocoa, that knows how to deliver a chocolaty punch even with its delicate ‘finely ground’ credentials.

Available from Galler’s London shop or online at: http://www.gallerchocolates.co.uk.

My Favourite Ingredients

helenka — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:48:01 +0000

Skye Gyngell’s first book ‘A Year in my Kitchen’, received a decent helping of praise from critics, winning The Guild of Food Writers ‘Cookery Book of the Year’ award in 2007. It’s no surprise then that Gyngell’s follow up is just as engrossing. ‘My Favourite Ingredients’ takes a look at some of Gyngell’s best-loved ingredients, and shapes a book full of recipes around them.

Head chef at Petersham Nurseries, Gyngell is known for her love and respect of the seasons and you really get a sense of this with her latest book. Her modesty and gentle tone fleck every page too, which draws you in to find out more. ‘My Favourite Ingredients’ is broken down into sixteen sections, each focusing on a particular ingredient, be it asparagus, cherries, honey or chocolate. The photography in the book is stunning so be prepared to drool, the recipes meanwhile are understated and sophisticated, but for the most part, simple to conjure up onto a plate.

Warm pheasant salad with pickled cherries and blood oranges with honey and rosemary do their best to get your saliva glands going. Whilst Gyngell’s nectarine and tomato salad with Parma ham and mozzarella makes you wish it was summer all year round, just so you could bite into the juicy, succulent fruit.

This is a wonderful book, which will probably bag a few awards itself. More importantly, it serves as a seasonal companion in the kitchen, that offers up plenty of inspiration for every month of the year.

Published by Quadrille, priced at £25.00.

Woodbridge 2005 Shiraz (Robert Mondavi)

helenka — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:26:46 +0000

This deep and fruity number from Robert Mondavi’s Woodbridge range is a great match for a decent slab of steak, or heavier meat dishes such as beef bourguignon. Mondavi has certainly helped to put Napa Valley on the map, and this gutsy red has been made from grapes sourced from Lodi, the Central Coast and the Sierra Foothills of California.

Mondavi got into wine making at an early, growing up in California and eventually taking over what was formerly the Charles Krug Winery there. Italian-born, he wanted to take wine making further than producing passable table wines, and his Woodbridge range is now the top selling American premium wine brand in the US.

Priced from £7.20, available at Threshers, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Waitrose.

Haribo Horror Mix

helenka — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:40:14 +0000

Haribo have gone Halloween crazy with their spookily themed gums and jellied sweets. Don’t be scared though – they might look spooky, but have the kind of typical Haribo taste that makes it easy to finish the packet in one sitting.

This spooky packet is squirming at the seams with snakes, spiders, bats and frogs. How terrifying. Freak you friends out, and hand out to trick or treat types, although you’d be forgiven for scoffing the spooky lot yourself.

Haribo have also created Magic Mix - an enchanting selection of gummy owls, brooms, cauldrons and ghosts. So next time, someone says “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”, you can say “Well, I have, but it’s okay – I’ve eaten him.”

Available from major supermarkets and confectionery retailers nationwide. Priced from £1.07 for a 175g bag.

Prestat’s Dark CHOXI+ Bar

helenka — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:21:14 +0000

We all know chocolate’s good for you right? Well, the people at Prestat have come up with a bar that’s especially good for you. Their new CHOXI+ range naturally contains more flavanol antioxidants than any other food.

Before you go stock piling said chocolate, remember that you do need to eat the occasional orange – just to balance things out. If however, you are devouring a bar of this stuff with real verve and someone should question your choice of food stuff, just remind them that two squares of dark CHOXI+ contain all the antioxidants your body needs for a whole day. If they still continue to berate you for reasons best known to themselves, then you can launch some secondary facts at them, explaining that two squares of this chocolate bar contain the same amount of antioxidants as two bowls of blueberries or 1lb of Brussels sprouts. Now, blueberries are lovely, granted, but a little expensive at two bowlfuls. Brussels sprouts on the other hand are just horrible – like mini cabbages that have forgotten how to wash.

The next step of course, is to take an actual step back as the person lecturing you tries to grab some of your chocolate, and see for themselves. At this point, you run in the opposite direction (quite fast, because you will be full of antioxidants), and promptly devour the rest of the bar in a handy little alcove you find along the way. Yes – the whole bar. It might be full of antioxidants, but it’s yet to have an impact on will power, and there’s that funny little voice inside your head telling you that perhaps, if you eat the whole bar in one day, you will live forever…

Prestat’s CHOXI+ range is available from selected Tesco and Waitrose stores, as well as from Prestat’s website: http://www.prestat.co.uk. Priced at £1.99.

OKÉ fruit smoothies

Admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:59:20 +0000

A Fairtrade smoothie range has hit the shelves that contains no concentrates, preservatives or added sugar. The fruit in OKÉ smoothies is sourced from small farmers and co-operatives in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Brazil and Peru, whilst OKÉ’s parent company AgroFair, is 50% owned by its Fairtrade farmer members and runs 100% for their benefit.

OKÉ smoothies come in two flavours: Raspberry, Blackberry & Banana, and Mango, Orange & Pink Guava. They’re also the UK’s first Fairtrade smoothies not to be made from concentrate. We tried the Mango, Orange & Pink Guava, which was zingy and fresh - perfect for grabbing first thing in the morning as a healthy start to the day. All of the fruit used in OKÉ smoothies is also transported by sea rather than air, so it wins on a good few responsible fronts.

AgroFair UK pioneered the introduction of Fairtrade fruit into Europe with the world’s first Fairtrade bananas, followed by the world’s first Fairtrade pineapples, mangoes, and grapefruit. It is the only fruit company wholly dedicated to Fairtrade. So next time you glug your way through one of these smoothies, remember that your purchase is offering fair support to the farmers that produce this juicy stuff.

OKÉ smoothies are available in Asda and Whole Foods, priced at approx £3.25. For further information please visit: http://www.okefairtrade.com.

Rwandan Farmers coffee

Admin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:45:54 +0000

If you love your coffee fix and want to get ethical about your consumption of it, Rwandan Farmers coffee bears a clutch of credentials worth looking at. First things first, this rounded ground coffee sees 100% of its gross profits go straight back to the coffee farmers. It means that the farmers can actually sustain what they do and nurture the direct relationship they have with the supermarkets.

As well as being Fair Trade, Rwandan Farmers coffee also offsets its carbon footprint through a programme of tree planting. The farmers plant shading trees around the coffee, which in turn enhances the quality of the coffee and increases nitrogen in the soils.

So for a cup of coffee that satisfies your caffeine fix, strikes a fair deal for coffee farmers and works to improve the environment, don’t look any further.

Rwandan Farmers coffee is available from Sainsbury’s priced at £2.89. The brand is held in trust for Rwandan coffee cooperatives by the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI) and all the brand's profits go back to the farmers for health, education and coffee investment.

Wasabiyaki

Admin — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:28:27 +0000

If you’re after a marinade with a little bit of a kick, Wasabiyaki is perfect for spicing up your BBQ’s and mealtimes. Full of garlic, ginger, soy, sesame seeds and of course, wasabi - it can turn a dull dish into an ‘oooh ahhh’ dish. Your friends will drool over your marinated beef, chicken or fish, your neighbours will feel compelled to come around just at the smell of your cooking and your mother-in-law will finally love you. Okay, so the last two bits weren’t true, but drooling friends are no bad thing.

It’s also one of those magic marinades that make you look like a seasoned pro in the kitchen, when all you really have to do is open the fridge door, take out the Wasabiyaki and apply lovingly to your food of choice. Now you look like a seasoned pro and your friends are drooling – what more could you ask for, from a bottle in your fridge?

Priced at £4.99/445g, available from: http://www.amazingfoodcompany.com.

Sunraysia Pure Squeezed Organic Carrot Juice

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:01:02 +0000

Sunraysia painstakingly auditioned 15 different types of carrot before settling on an organic variety that ticked all the boxes for their carrot juice. The carrots didn’t have to sing or dance – they just had to taste great, and the results are available to the drinking public in the form of Sunraysia’s Pure Squeezed Organic Carrot Juice.

So how did iLoveMyGrub rate it? Well, you’d think carrot juice was plain and simple – maybe a one-taste-wonder. But Sunraysia’s organic stuff has plenty of sweetness to begin with, finished off with a tart edge that gets your taste buds dancing as if they were, well, in an audition…

There are no artificial flavourings or colourings in these bottles of carrot juice, and no GM antics have been going on either. The people at Sunraysia purport that this carrot juice also aids good digestion through its acid neutralizing effect, so it wins on the health as well as the taste front.

Available from Waitrose at £2.99 for a 750ml bottle (RRP).

Ping Pong Flowering Teas

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:14:40 +0000

Ping Pong has hailed its seven London-based restaurants as 21st century teahouses. In each dim sum “emporium” you can pick your way through a varied menu of these Chinese culinary offerings, and sip on some great quality teas while you’re at it.

The only down side of going somewhere like Ping Pong and enjoying it immensely, is the craving you have for delights from the menu once you’re at home, and absolutely no where near a Ping Pong establishment. On my first visit to Ping Pong I finished off several rounds of dim sum with a flowering tea. Aside from a little mesmerization at the unfurling ball of tea as it opened up into a flower in its long glass of hot water, it tasted intensely good for you and full of flavour. No weak, halfhearted attempt at green tea here. Quite the opposite: full on taste and a glassful of prettiness whilst you sip.

Now brilliantly, you can get your hands on some of Ping Pong’s flowering teas for your very own use at home. Their hand-sewn balls of tealeaves come in three varieties: Flowering Jasmine (delicate and aromatic), Flowering Red Amaranth (soft wildflower taste) and Flowering Osmanthnus (sweet on the tongue and stunning to look at). You don’t often get your glass of tea upstaging what’s on your plate, but these flowering teas do just that - art in a glass.

Available to purchase from Ping Pong restaurants and online at: http://www.pingpongdimsum.com