Staff home testing - bara, burnt rice and still more BBQs

A weekend of camping followed by a Date Night in Trinidad...excellent! Although it took about two hours to create the meal, the results were definitely worth it. Sweetcorn fritters to start - I'm not used to deep-frying at home (I'll never again dump hot oil into an empty can of sweet corn, that's for sure!) so I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and fast it was. The baras were fried as well, so two birds killed with one stone. The breads weren't nearly as fluffy and delish as at work, but the curry and greens came out great and we both loved the 'green seasoning' and hot sauce which accompanied the meal. Jess - HR etc - Pistachio Kulfi (aka Kulfilicious) (WK dessert coming up) This month I tried my hand at Kulfi making.  Being a nut lover (with pistachios being my all-time number 1) I was excited to see how hard it would be to make pistachio ice cream..........It was easy! Basically heat all the ingredients together and freeze, checking in after 2 hours for a quick swirl!  I have to admit to a slight faux pas with a soup whizzer (not the ideal utensil for grinding nuts) but once concealed tightly within a mug and tea towel it worked just fine (if perhaps a little coarse!).  For me however, the consistency was perfect with no icy shards but a nice, slightly rough texture. The chilli peaches were delicious as well, I opted for tinned peaches because the fresh were hard as stones and just decreased the amount of sugar I added. The chilli added a lovely warmth to the cold dessert and the lime made it all feel fresh and healthy! It went down an absolute storm after a lovely sunny BBQ with g&t’s all round (the peach juice from the tin made a welcome accompaniment to them)! Pretty much the most perfect summer pudding I can think of … ! Chris - machine man - Mushrooms Quesadillas, Red Rice, salsa and hot sauce (WKVegetarian box coming up) After trying these during lunch I was eager to try them at home. The recipe was easy to follow and satisfying to make, though I had to fish out the salsa herbs from the hot sauce (whoops). The quesadillas were very tasty, especially when combined with the hot sauce and the salsa! Though a bit of a task to flip, had to over turn to a chopping board, trying to keep the uncooked tortilla from breaking! Made for a very messy meal, sans knife and fork. The only low point would be the rice, I thought it was a bit flavourless. Perhaps I didn’t put enough salt in, plus I burnt the bottom to the pan! Not a fan of easy cook rice, I’m not sure of the benefits when I know how to cook with normal basmati. Aside from that, a very tasty meal! Robyn - spice blender - Indian BBQ subscription box (BBQ sub box 3) I was cooking this for spicery virgins, so the pressure was on to impress. The menu consisted of Shami Kebabs, tandoori chicken, mango chutney, green herb chutney, dum aloo and an indian coleslaw. The kebabs seemed to take forever to make, and no one seemed to want to muck in to help with this job. I ran out of skewers and had to just mould the rest into burgers. The mango chutney was a revelation, no one could really believe that it wasn't from a jar. I got carried away with the chatting and drinking that I forgot to keep an eye on the time. On one hand the kebabs ended up being over cooked (lucky the mango chutney helped to disguise it) and on the other the chicken was still raw. We ended up having to eat it all in stages, which no one really minded. The potatoes carried quite a kick, and some of us had to have a dash of yoghurt on the side! Overall the spicery newbies seemed impressed, even with my timing issues. They've already offered to be the guinea pigs for next months testing, perhaps I'll get them to cook it though! Suze - product development - Turkish BBQ subscription box (BBQ sub box 2) This month’s Turkish BBQ was another indoor BBQ, but I’m planning on doing it on a real BBQ soon as this one was so successful. I got organised and did a lot of the prep work the night before so that I could just get home and grill everything - so the chilli sauce, lamb skewers and kofte kebabs sat in the fridge overnight, and then it was just quickly grating some cucumber, cooking the rice, whipping up the salad and pouring some wine. And what a success!!It was actually hard to get feedback from people as they were so busy reaching for more of everything, mumbling comments like “wow that yoghurt thing” and “I hope you didn’t want leftovers”. I’ve rarely cooked something that’s gone down so well. All of it was amazing. The kofte kebabs were a bit spicy (we’ve since made them a bit milder), but other than that I would eat it all again in half a heartbeat. Top notch. Amy - financial controller - Pakistani Nihari with Khichdi, Tamarind Chutney and Carrot Raita (FNCDiscoverer box coming up) I decided to take this one with me on a trip to Wales to visit my sister and her family and it went down very well! The recipe was so easy to follow and took very little time to prep. I really enjoyed making the carrot raita - got me out of a cucumber and mint rut!  

I'd never cooked tofu before so thought I'd give the veggie Korean Bulgogi a bash - little did I know how tricky, or impossible, finding tofu  in my new area of town would prove to be. Aldi (you won't believe the price of their smoked salmon, but that's a whole other issue), Coop AND Tesco Local all let me down so I was forced to go for the distinctly non-vegetarian option of beef thereby making this home-test pretty much null and void. Unfortunately this wasn't my only ingredients switch-a-roo as I had to swap the equally illusive Chinese cabbage for a regular white one. Bad start.

I redeemed things in the kitchen though with a silky smooth performance, navigating the odd spelling mistake and continuity error with aplomb (ego problem). My new landlords and I really enjoyed the flavours in this dish, especially the dipping sauce which was flipping beaut - needed much more of this in our opinion!