Staff Testing - February 2016

This has to be one of the more obscure Date Nights!  When I think of Istanbul I think of kebabs, fragrant meat, salads and dips ...

To start with there was Stuffed Peppers with Sumac Salad, chilli sauce and yoghurt - this was to be expected!  Citrussy sumac, coating crunchy salad and pitta bread in a warm pepper shell with firey sauce and cooling yoghurt.  Delicious, light and authentic ... if a little heavy on the raw onion, this was a date night after all!).

The main course is where the shock lay!  As always, I hadn't read through the recipe beforehand and was happily cooking away when I came across the instructions to make a roux ... a WHAT?  I hadn't expected this!  I idle-ly had bought milk assuming it was for the dessert ... no no!  I did as I was told though and mixed up a roux and mashed in the roasted aubergine and parsley.  I have to admit, it did remind me of meals I endured with an ex boyfriends parents, a glut of parsley sauce with everything!  Once swirled in with the tomatoey lamb however, the Hunkar Begendi made for an unexpected culinary delight !

Pudding was a rose and mastic ice cream.  Mastic is something I hadn't come across before but my boyfriend was a little surprised to see it referenced on a menu, referring to it as the better known, silicone sealer!  I reassured him and cracked on.  There is a definite pine after taste to this ice cream, sweet and floral at first with the follow up taste of ikea, but in a good way!

All in all, this meal is a surprise! Valentine's meals have a tendancy to be predictable, seafood (can't have this), rare steaks and red wine (can't have this either) ... but this meal will get you talking and sometimes, that's all you need from a date night!

Chris on Chettinad Black Pepper Curry;

Some pictures of my friend Steve and the curry.

Robyn on DYI Manfood Pastrami;

This month I got to test out an upcoming advanced cooking kit, DIY Pastrami. The first part was simple enough brining the meat. This can take up to 3 days, but being the impatient person that I am I only did this for a day. The next morning I took the meat out the brine and rubbed in the pastrami spices. I could only get hold of a small piece of brisket and didn't think to half the spices. (This may have been the cause of it being far too spicy for my mouth!) After realising that I had no foil, I had to go back out to the shop before I started the 3 hour cooking process. Finally with foil in hand I wrapped the beef and popped it in the oven I cracked on with the condiments. This included sauerkraut, American mustard, sour cream & chive potatoes, dill pickles and a beetroot and horseradish combo called Chrian. All of these were easy to do and extremely tasty. My partner was super impressed that I made my own American mustard! After a 3 and a bit hour wait the pastrami was finally cooked. Although a little disappointed that it wasn't that bright pink colour that i associated with pastrami, the taste was spot on, If not a little too spicy (my fault entirely!) I'm not sure I would ever cook my own pastrami again, I'm just a little bit too impatient and I have to admit the bagel shop down the road do a bangin' NY pastrami bagel!

Andrea on Date Night in Goa;

Sometimes I find that - though the Date Night meal is designed for two people - there's just a bit too much food for D and I to finish all in one sitting. So this time, I decided to split it up a bit, especially as the dessert is a fried samosa - quite a heavy end to a meal! Our date night turned into a date day, as we had the chicken cafreal (not difficult to make but I don't think I would skewer the chicken pieces to grill them as they turned out overcooked) for a nice lunch and then the fish curry for our dinner. The curry was really easy to make, though I did end up with a lot of sauce leftover and our rice was swimming in it a bit. The dessert was probably the most time-consuming and finnicky to make. The end result did not turn out looking that great and I think - were I to make them again - I probably would prefer them baked and served with something like yogurt.

Sarah on Mauritian Fish Curry;

This was my first time staff-testing as part of the Spicery team. I have to admit it was a bit daunting at first but in the end I thoroughly enjoyed the process. For this I decided to tackle the Mauritian Fish Curry.I'd recommend fully prepping everything in advance as there are several components to this meal and the cooking process is made much smoother if you have everything measured out and set aside. The Mazavaroo Sauce was a highlight for me. The lemon juice and rind gave it a delicious tangy edge which complimented the main dish wonderfully. For this, I didn't de-seed the chillies as I tend to like my spicy food on the hotter end of the scale – but I'd definitely recommend this step for anyone who prefers it mild. The Green Bean Rougaille was my second favourite and will definitely be popular for other lovers of tomato based dishes. Once you've got all the ingredients in a pan you can simply cover and allow it to cook for 30 minutes making it a pretty low maintenance step. The Tamarind Rice was very much the same- a quick and low maintenance process which resulted in quite mild and pleasant flavouring. For the main curry dish I used Vietnamese River Cobbler – a fairly firm white-fleshed fish. The curry sauce itself is a very straightforward and easy process. Once all the ingredients are mixed and allowed to simmer the sauce thickens quite quickly. Simply add the fish fillets and allow to cook through, then serve. I'd add more salt if I were to do it again but this tends to be something very subjective so I'd suggest test-tasting before adding more. A lovely tangy and sweet companion dish can be found in the Chilli Salt Fruit. The pineapple-to-cucumber ratio on this one was a bit off – I'd probably add more cucumber next time (but its really down to personal taste!). The one thing that did strike me as odd was the Gateaux Piment – a chick-pea based deep-fried side. Not only did they come out a bit mild flavour-wise and also seemed a bit out of place. I could perhaps pin this down to their similarity to a street food snack called Vadai which can be found in my mother's native Singapore. This particular chick-pea fritter is not really enjoyed as part of a sit down meal but is more of a casual snack. That said the meal was overall quite enjoyable and went down well with the family

As with lots of the Spicery meals I make at home the first 30 minutes was a chaotic mess with bowls or half prepped veg and various things marinating all over the place. However, after a 5 minute tidy up the rest of the proceedings went very smoothly. Once the sauces and salads are made the actual cooking part of this is very quick and easy. The only thing that went wrong was me swapping 2 of the spice bags due to slightly similar looking names (which have now been changed!).

All the light and fragrant flavours of Vietnam went down really well as a substitute Sunday lunch for my family. Sometimes the Spicery meals are HUGE but this one was just right (with a little bit of room left for pudding!).