Steeliac

Tag: Product review

  • Rule of Crumb – frozen treats!

    Rule of Crumb – frozen treats!

    I love cooking, but sometimes it’s nice to slack off and take the easy option.

    I have deployed these gluten free profiteroles from Rule of Crumb a few times now for a Sunday dinner pudding, a birthday treat and even on Boxing Day. They are the perfect cheat dessert, as you keep them in the freezer until the morning you need them, then get the box out to defrost. It takes about 5 minutes to assemble them in a bowl and drizzle over the chocolate and salted caramel sauces, then ta-da!

    The great thing is, they do look just like the photo on the packet. (I should say there are two boxes worth in my photo.) And they taste fabulous, if you have a sweet tooth. At £2.99 per box, it’s not even that expensive. Highly recommended!

    Also from Rule of Crumb is this pre-prepared gluten free Chicken Katsu Curry, which I think is a fairly new product.

    You have to make the accompaniments for this, but for the chicken, it’s a case of baking it in the oven for 20 mins or so and microwaving the sauce. You’re supposed to defrost it overnight in the fridge, but we didn’t realise so we cooked it from frozen for a bit longer, and it was fine.

    Great flavour, nice bit of heat, crispy chicken. Lovely.

    This is a great treat meal for those occasions when we really fancy a takeaway but just not another curry, which seems the only takeaway we can easily get these days.

    Rule of Crumb foods are stocked by Sainsburys, Morrisons, Booths, Wholefoods and Ocado, according to their website. Or you can buy directly from their online shop, where you can see their other products.

    Disclaimer: I bought (am still buying) these myself and genuinely think they’re great – this isn’t a promotional post 🙂

  • Tesco gluten free sushi

    Tesco gluten free sushi

    I don’t think this is particularly news, but as I don’t usually shop in Tesco, it was news to me! I am very impressed that they have opted for a gluten free soy sauce in their takeaway sushi packs, giving me a rather splendid work lunch today. This little lot was only £3. Not all the packs are gluten free as one of them had panko breadcrumbs in the sushi, but the plain fish ones will be ok.

    They also had a gluten free cheese and onion pre-packed sandwich, but sushi generally wins over a sandwich for me.

    I also discovered these gluten free KitKat type biscuits, which look rather fine. Will be testing these out over the weekend. It’s a long time since I had a KitKat!

  • Gluten free profiteroles – blink and they’re gone!

    Gluten free profiteroles – blink and they’re gone!

    We recently hosted a bring and share BBQ for our friends – the last one of the season, I imagine. There were five families in all, with children, and out of nineteen of us, an impressive four are gluten free. I made some chicken and vegetable kebabs and a butternut squash and feta salad, so I wanted something I could assemble quickly for dessert. I ended up buying a few packs of these Rule of Crumb profiteroles, which you keep in the freezer until a few hours before you need them, then defrost and serve. Super easy.

    The profiteroles are filled with cream and come with two sauce sachets, one salted caramel and the other chocolate, which drizzle on nicely. They didn’t last long! Everybody said they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them and gluten containing ones.

    As well as being delicious, these are also accredited by Coeliac UK, for an extra level of reassurance.

    I know it’s a bit early to use the ‘C’ word, but these will definitely be putting in an appearance over Christmas in our house! I might need to find a slightly classier serving dish though…

    PS this is absolutely not a sponsored post! I bought them, and we ate them.  🙂

     

  • Product review: Bol quick cook pots

    Product review: Bol quick cook pots

    Wednesday evenings are generally when hubby goes out mountain biking, so tea has to be a quick and light meal, either leftovers or something thrown together after work.

    This week I happened across a new fresh ready meal in the supermarket, so convenience won out over cooking, and also provided a good subject for the blog.

    Bol was founded by Paul Brown with the aim of creating healthy meals for busy people to eat well without compromise on taste, health, quality or price. The recipes take inspiration from different places round the world.

    There are about 8 different recipes in Bol’s quick cook pots selection, four of which have no gluten containing ingredients. The two I bought were Mexican sweet potato chilli and Keralan coconut chicken, and the other gluten free options are Sri Lankan lentil sambar and Italian tomato courgetti.

    I am generally happy to buy foods with no gluten containing ingredients, but I appreciate others may be more cautious. Having read the ingredients on the packs, I assumed they were ok, as the packaging does not indicate any risk of the meals containing gluten. However, having just looked at Bol’s website, the FAQs state that their meals are prepared in kitchens that do handle wheat, barley, rye and oats. So a big caution here if you’re coeliac. That’s a bit frustrating as I’d expect to be warned of cross contamination risk on the packet. I’ll update the post if I’m ill!

    The ingredients are layered in the pots, so from the side, they appear full of colour and loads of fresh vegetables. (Bol’s website shows this well.) Both of the pots took 3 1/2 minutes to cook in the microwave.

    First we tried the Keralan coconut chicken. This one had an aromatic fragrance and plenty of colour from the beetroot, green beans and coconut sauce. We were impressed by the taste – plenty of spices – and the variety of textures.

    The beetroot in particular brings great colour and sweetness to cut throught the spice, and the rice had a nice bite to it. We thought there was a generous amount of chicken in nice big pieces, and it was soft and tender. Overall, a really lovely, fresh tasting meal.

    Next up was the Mexican sweet potato chilli. The first thing we noticed on opening the lid was a pungent smoky aroma. We both love smoky food so were looking forward to trying this bowl, but it didn’t quite match up to the Keralan chicken for us.

    The prominent flavour was a smoky earthy one that lingered in the mouth, and slightly overpowered the rest of the flavours. The sweet potatoes were the white coloured ones, but I think the orange coloured ones would have given a sweeter flavour. We did like the beans, and the combination of rice and quinoa, but overall didn’t enjoy this as much as the first dish. This chilli was also supposed to be spicier (3 chilli rating) than the Keralan chicken (2 chillis) but we didn’t really notice a difference.

    Price is roughly £3 per pot. Available from Sainsburys, Ocado, Tesco and Waitrose.

    It looks like Bol are also introducing a range of salad in a jar, which seems to be all the rage at the moment. There are 4 recipes but only the Persian and Mediterranean have no gluten containing ingredients.

    Well, here’s hoping there’s no cross contamination…