January Staff Testing

Each month The Spicery staff get the chance to test out recipes at home to determine any last tweaks before we begin blending, designing and packing for the upcoming Subscription Boxes...

Plenty of cooking went on this month as Maria, Dan, Andrea, Kelly and Jess each took a recipe under their wing for an evening and came back to tell us how it went!

Maria's Jalfrezi Night

Indian Restaurant Favourites

Testing this recipe was a great treat as Jalfrezi is one of my favourite curries so I was very excited to prepare it at home. The samosas are very simple to make and they were so tasty!

The whole meal is a perfect combination of flavours, I loved the spiciness of the Jalfrezi served with fried chillies, the samosas with tomato chutney and the rice with cassia leaves! The result: me and Nick ate it all - even though it's supposed to serve 4!

Dan's Vege Korma

Meat Free Magic

This month I was pleased to see a veggie curry up for grabs in the tester kit selection, especially when I saw the side dish that accompanied it was stuffed chilles - a dish I've tried previously in The Spicery kitchen and loved it!

I thought I'd actually try and prep everything in advance this time so I chopped and measured out all my ingredients ready for the madness of cooking multiple dishes at once commenced.

I've never tried the Sheermal breads before but I have to say they were a real highlight for me, they were nice and straight forward to make and the bread accompanied the chutney and salad so well I could of had that as a meal on its own!

As always The Spicery salads are always a winner for me, they always taste super fresh and healthy which with a creamy curry is the best combo.

For the main I used potatoes, carrots, peas and asparagus. The more veg you use the better, it's always nice to have a colourful dish.. and this curry was most definitely that, especially with the scattered rose petals and cashews. 

Thumbs up for this kit. The chillies, bread, curry, chutney and salad were all delicious, there was plenty to go round and I cant wait to try this one again.

Andrea's Dak Bungalow

Friday Night Curry Discoverer

Friday Night Curry on a Sunday evening - and we were greedy, too!

My sous chef and I didn't have any housemates around for this month's installment of recipe testing, which meant more for us to enjoy over two nights instead of one.

They didn't have any chicken thighs at the butchers, so we ended up getting a whole chicken and using the thighs, legs and wings for the recipe resulting in plenty of leftover meat in the curry for the following evening's dinner.

We may never know why they are called cutlets, but the fried patties of potatoes might have been the favourite part of the whole meal - not the easiest things to coat in breadcrumbs, but they ended up frying very well and tasted great. Very good for mopping all those golden juices from the delicious curry.

Kelly's Persian BBQ

BBQ Round The World

I am the new kid on the block here at The Spicery and was delighted to hear there are monthly opportunities to test recipes at home, yay!

I opted for the Persian BBQ because my other half can’t have chilli at the moment (long story!) and this kit had the least amount, plus it was full of herbs, saffron and sumac. The recipe said it feeds 4-6 so I invited two other friends along to reap the benefits of my new job!

I am a fool in the kitchen, by which I mean I am confident and impatient so I had to fight all of my urges to run ahead of the recipe. I knew it had already been tried & tested, so I wanted to stick to it! The recipe was clear, simple and written in the order you needed to cook, which I think is super helpful as there are a lot of dishes to make.

The only thing I changed was doubling the amount of fresh coriander because I love it. I made chicken joojeh skewer, lamb koobideh skewers, two salads, two dips, toasted pitta and some of the best saffron rice I have ever had (you part cook the rice and the fry in butter and leave to get a crispy bottom, so so good!). We all agreed everything was delicately spiced, fresh and clean tasting. There was so much food we even had enough for dinner the next night, bonus! What a great night, bring on next month!

Jess' Sri Lankan Beef Smore

World Kitchen Explorer

After having this made for me by the professionals at Spicery HQ I was a willing tester for the Sri Lanakan Beef Smore.

A couple of friends are off to Sri Lanakan to get married in a couple of weeks so I invited them over and got cooking.

This is a great one to cook when you're having people over because you can make the sides (on the most part) ahead of time and pop the smore on to cook and leave it, free for a glass of wine!

The smore itself is a breeze to put together, just chuck it in and leave it! The dhal is easier still as you don't even need to cook off onions first! My only fear was the hopper (a Sri Lanakan pancake similar to a Yorkshire pudding) as I have had varying success with Yorkshire puds before and In only had olive oil (instead of sunflower) which struggles to reach a hot enough temperature ...

However, it turned out perfectly! Rose to mammoth proportions and was crisp around the edges and fluffy inside. This worked as a wonderful vessel for the smore and side dishes and the coconut chutney on top added a welcomed freshness to the whole thing.

I opted to steam the cabbage for the mallung instead of fry, just because I have a wedding to slim down for myself (non-drastic measures!)! I think it did help with the overall heartiness of the dish as well as there are a lot of heavy components. For a winter warmer though, this is ideal!