Staff Testing - a home made take away, allspicey teeth and oh-so-much romesco

What with our usual kitchen-blogger-superstar away on a world tour of all things spicy, we have fallen somewhat behind with staff testing.  But fear not, a few avid testers still managed to don an apron in time to sample some up and coming delights ... So, with hot sauce on the walls, 'proper' fried rice and a holiday romance here's what you've got to look forward to ... Andrea – order processor – Date Night in Barcelona (current DN box) I even got to use my new freezer! The crema catalana came out a bit runnier than I've had at work, but that's probably because I didn't let it set in the freezer for long enough.   Jess - HR/Customer Services - Guyanese Pepperpot Stew (upcoming WK Discoverer Box) Having made this one before at Spicery HQ, it was interesting to see how it would differ in my own humble kitchen.  This meal is one of those brilliant Spicery finds where the input is minimal (to say the least) but the outcome is magnificent. I would wholly recommend this as a dish to make if you want to impress but have very little time in which to create it! I left the chicken to marinade for about an hour (I got distracted with something else) and then popped all the other ingredients in and left it to do it’s thing! I used a mix of chicken thighs and drumsticks which I think added to the aesthetics of the stew, as there are few components. I tore the habanero a little as when I previously made it as I hadn’t noticed much heat so I did this again, perhaps a little aggressively, which resulted in a lovely warmth of which the sweet, molasses gravy worked really well alongside.  The hot sweetness also worked well with the savoury, coconutty rice. Not learning from previous escapades, I again had to blitz the hot sauce with a soup whizzer which (again) resulted in hot sauce being flung on all four corners of my kitchen but it was worth it!  The sour sauce was necessary to cut through the sweetness of the sugary stew and created a beautiful balance of flavours. I didn’t quite manage to remove all the whole spices from the stew, the bay and cinnamon were easy enough but the handful of allspice berries were a bit more difficult to dig out.  This was nothing a side plate couldn’t rectify though! All in all, this is a gem of a Spicery meal, all those involved enjoyed it and we washed it down with some strong Belgian beers - Tuesday Night, Party Night! Rife with the signature Caribbean flavours of thyme, allspice and cinnamon, the Guyanese Pepperpot Stew is new firm favourite in the Swingler-Jobbins household! Robyn - Head Spicerer - Chinese Take Away (potential one-hit-wonder, tbc ...) After moving into a new house only last week, and telling all my new housemates my spice tales, it was only a matter of time before I used them as my spice guinea pigs. What better kit to test than the new Chinese takeaway subscription? The starter was pork satay with satay sauce, followed by pork fried rice, crispy chilli beef and braised veggies with prawn crackers and homemade sweet chilli sauce. With 5 other people to impress and so much to do in a brand new kitchen I was a tad nervous and in the end roped in one of the housemates to help! I decided that I would just serve everything at the same time. So after realising I'd forgotten to buy the skewers I just rolled with the fact the pork satay had become pork pieces. I also misread the prep list and didn't crush my peanuts meaning the satay sauce was extremely crunchy - which the guests however loved! Everything seemed to taste of a really great Chinese takeaway. I can't believe how easy crispy chilli beef is, even if I did have to rescue it with water as it became extremely thick, extremely quickly!  Because everything was having to be cooked on the hob and then served I found that I couldn't quite heat everything at the the same time and in the end it was getting quite cold when I came to serving it. The housemates loved it however. Comments about the kick of the sweet chilli sauce, the likeness of a proper fried rice and the fact that one went back for thirds proved it wasn't just talk! Maybe if I had served the satay pork as a starter it would have bought me more time in the kitchen to get things hot! Still a great meal and some new spice fans already eagerly anticipating next months home testing!