Foodie News April 2014

Here are some goodies I have come across recently which I hope you will enjoy too!

Hotel Chocolat

For Easter instead of an egg why not treat a loved one to Egg and Chips (rrp £14) from Hotel Chocolat? It comprises of a creamy white chocolate and vanilla seed egg with a soft caramel yolk and eight mellow milk chocolate, caramel-filled chips. We found these smooth, creamy and delicious, my only negative was having to share with my family!

Bowlovers

I don’t you about you, but I feel guilty every time I reach for the cling film and the thing I find I use it for most is to cover my salad bowl! So I was really pleased when I was sent a pack of Salad Bowlovers rrp £12 which are reusable cotton elasticated covers that will fit even the largest of salad bowl. They come in a pack of 2 so when one gets dirty pop it in the wash you have another in reserve! With summer just around the corner I think these covers are really good for when you’re entertaining outdoors as you can pop these covers on and off quickly and they look good too! Bowlovers come in various sizes and patterns so do go and check out their website!

Cusacks

It’s not that often that I get excited about mustard but recently Cusacks, a Surrey based fine condiment company, sent me 4 of their products: Grain Beer Mustard, Smooth Beer Mustard, Coarse Grain Beer Mustard (all of which use Dorking Brewery real ale) and Mustard Pickle, which did get me excited. All their products are handmade in small batches using fresh, natural ingredients and they do not use any artificial colouring, flavouring or sweeteners. Being fans of toasted cheese sandwiches we wasted no time in trying out all the mustards and my husband without being told asked what the mustard was in his sandwich on day one! The use of the Dorking Brewery real ale gives a lovely unique flavour to the mustards. The mustard pickle has almost gone now and I even put this in our sandwiches, it contains similar ingredients to picallili (I think) but is far nicer and has lovely ingredients in it like tomatoes, molasses, dates and spices. So if you want to pep up your cold meats, cheese or salad dressings then do check out Cusacks Mustards which can be found in small independent retailers and farm shops for around £3.69 a jar

Q-bags

I was sent some Qbags recently which are good for cooking on the BBQ or can be used in a conventional oven and grill. The bags are made of alu foil and have a see through window so that you can check on your food or you can even remove the window if you wish. You can cook all manner of foods in these bags and I recently tried mine out with a split banana in which I placed a mixture of rum, muscovado sugar and butter. I cooked it for about 12 minutes and out came a delicious pudding which I served with ice cream. I think these bags are ideally suited for cooking in a caravan or on a boat as well as camping as they take away a lot of mess and are quick and convenient to use! Check out Qbag’s website for more details.

If you’ve enjoyed this post why not check out previous Foodie News round-ups?

If you’re a brand and would like your quality product reviewed here, do get in contact via the contact form!

NB: Many thanks to the above brands who provided sample products, all opinions are my own and I was not paid for this post.