I was invited along to a special bloggers event to launch Tilda's new range of stir fry rices. These sort of events are always fun to go to and it's always lovely to meet other bloggers, try something new and give an honest opinion on the product.
It is fair to say the majority of the bloggers weren't likely to be Tilda's target audience, as people like Anne, Gary and Manuika (amongst others) are already accomplished cooks in their own right and probably don't need to take shortcuts in the kitchen.
However, I am an altogether different proposition and need all the help I can get!
The reason I like eating out so much is that my skills in the kitchen leave a lot to be desired and so I was interested to see how these new stir fry rices measured up.
We gathered in the kitchen of the beautiful Food at 52 and were treated to a demonstration by chef and author Jo Pratt.
Jo started the evening by making a spicy Thai Green Rice soup with prawns. This was delicious and so simple to make. The soup was full of flavour with the spices from the rice infusing with the chili and coriander to make a very tasty starter.
Undoubtedly my favourite dish of the evening and one I'll definitely be trying at home.
After the deliciousness of the soup the lamb was a bit bland in comparison.
The lamb itself was very good - tender and full of flavour. However, the Thai Red rice by itself wasn't enough and the lamb probably needed a bit of a marinade and some veg to jazz it up a bit.
One blogger suggested a bit of lemon and lime would have gone well with it and I thought this was a great idea. Onwards and upwards though!
Next up were some good crispy duck pancakes. The rice definitely added something extra and I enjoyed these a lot and did my best to grab a couple, as they were popular with everyone else.
After Jo had run us through dishes it was our turn and I teamed up with Cathy and Helly to whip up a storm. We were treated to some top produce for ingredients and decided to use some of the jumbo prawns that were in the soup earlier.
We also grabbed various veg, some ginger, oyster and soy sauce and the Peking Rice and five minutes later this was the result:
A simple, tasty, healthy dish that anyone (even me) could cook. I added a few chopped chillies and went out into the garden to enjoy our creation.
Overall I was impressed with the flavour of the rice. The range is a high quality convenience food and great to have in the cupboard when you've had a long day at work and want something quick and easy.
I've already thrown some veg, pork, soy sauce and ginger in a pan with the Peking rice and cooked up a perfectly good meal for two in about 10 minutes - well 20 when you add in how long it takes me to chop veg! Certainly quicker, cheaper and healthier than popping to the takeaway...