Mother’s Day

Home by Nico – Taste of Tuscany

If your mum loves travelling or Italian food just happens to be her favourite cuisine, then we’ve got just the thing. A taste of Tuscan cuisine is on the menu this March from Home by Nico (from Six by Nico), which is music to our ears as we are craving a holiday like you wouldn’t believe! Home by Nico brings Tuscany’s legendary cuisine – known for artful simplicity, fresh ingredients, and hearty flavours – to your home.

Your (or mum’s) trip to Tuscany will begin with two starters. The first is an amazing Ribollita with Salsa al Dragoncello – Pistou broth with Tarragon salsa verde. It’s comforting and packed full of divine flavours. The second starter is a Pici al ragu di cinghiale – Pici pasta with wild boar ragu, which is simple, brilliant and very moreish. This is followed by a main course of Pork Cheek Rosticciana – braised pork stew with chilli, fennel, rosemary and Borlotti beans and a side dish of Broccolo with salsa di noci – walnut and basil pesto. This is a wonderful dish boasting flavour as well as rustic charm and superb quality ingredients.

To compliment the dishes there will be a sweet and delightful Raisin and Rosemary Sourdough bread with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Pane Toscano, and to finish a creamy (and incredible) Hazelnut Bombellini with mascarpone, honey and chestnut. ‘Cooking Tuscany’ is served with a bottle of Monte Guelfo, Chianti – a perfectly chosen vino to enjoy with this excellent meal kit.

Home by Nico – Mother’s Day Edition

As well as inspiring wanderlust, Home by Nico have gone all out with this carefully curated Mother’s Day Edition.

The four course menu begins with Potted Hot Smoked Salmon, Cucumber and Apple; Sirloin of Beef (500g), Red Wine Jus, Butter Garlic and Thyme served with sides of Truffle Cheese Dauphinoise with Garlic and Thyme; Spring Vegetable Fricassee with carrot, fresh Pea and a mint dressing.

The cheese course comes in the form of Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire, Spiced Orchard Fruit Chutney and Water crackers, and dessert is a Dark Chocolate Mousse, Salted Caramel and Golden Cocoa Nibs.

The Home by Nico: Mother’s Day Edition is served with a Montresor Prosecco Millesimato Extra Dry Prosecco.

St Patrick’s Day

Brand new food platform, StarChefs has got an ace up its sleeve for St Patrick’s Day this month, which will be their second home dining experience – the first being a Chinese New Year special with Michelin starred chef, Andrew Wong.

The four-course St Patrick’s Day meal has been created by celebrated Irish chef, Robin Gill, who is the talent behind five popular restaurants including The Bermondsey Larder, Darby’s and Birch Community. Available for nationwide delivery, the St Patrick’s Day box, which is being supported by Redbreast premium Irish whiskey, can be pre-ordered from the StarChefs website. The box will be available in limited numbers for delivery from Wednesday 17th – Saturday 20th March.

Each box will include four courses of indulgent and refined comfort dishes designed to evoke nostalgia around Robin’s experiences of growing up in Ireland, and to celebrate the exceptional produce he takes pride in sourcing. Diners can expect to enjoy delightful County Cork Gubbean and smoked haddock gougères, with mouthwatering London-cured Secret Smokehouse salmon served with Robin’s soda bread, which is excellent with the wild Atlantic seaweed butter. The undoubtable star of the four courses though is the rich beef and bone marrow pie to share, which is topped with a luxurious croissant pastry and comes with a cast iron skillet. It’s fun to make, looks fantastic on the eye and tastes even better. Serve this up with sides of amazing Kerrygold butter mashed potato and pot-roast cabbage with kale crisps. Leave some space for a finale of Pump Street chocolate mousse with sea salt and Redbreast whiskey caramel in a choux bun – very, very indulgent.

There are also two drinks per person included thanks to award-winning premium Irish whiskey, Redbreast: a Redbreast Old Fashioned cocktail, and a 60ml, neat measure of superior, 12 years old Redbreast Irish whiskey. Sláinte!

To ensure that the event is a truly festive occasion, all diners will also have access to a unique Irish playlist created by Robin himself, can log on to a whiskey tasting tutorial between Robin and Redbreast’s ambassador, Ronan Collins, and will find fun, themed items included in their box.

Travel

Caribbean – Myristica

If there’s one thing we’re definitely all craving right now, it’s a holiday right? Well, here’s something that will certainly bring some vibrancy to your table until we’re allowed to get on a plane again. Chef Michelle Trusselle and her Myristica At Home Jerk Chicken Feast deliver authentic Caribbean flavours, giving us all something to look forward to while we’re stuck indoors.

Available throughout most of the UK, the meal kit is an extraordinarily generous feast that’ll put a smile on your face before you’ve even tasted the dishes. First off there’s succulent Jerk Chicken with free-range corn-fed chickens from Cook & Feast London. These birds have gone through four different cooking and marinade steps and take over 48 hours to get SO good! The chicken breasts and chicken legs are brined separately in a secret spiced brining solution for different lengths of time so that they’re just right. Then the chicken is marinated in Michelle’s delicious blend of Jerk spices before lightly smoking over spiced oak wood chips. It’s then sealed and left to marinate for 48 hours to lock in all that flavour and the result is soft, smoky tender jerk chicken at it’s finest.

Alongside this you’ll get Homemade Chilli Sauce that delivers a bang; classic Rice & Peas that’s comfort food in a bowl; Fried Plantain which goes really well with that chilli sauce; amazing Sweetcorn with Smoked Salt & Lime Butter (an unexpected favourite right here); Marinated Peppers that are just great; Chilli Carrots which offers a nice level of heat; Pineapple & Mint to round things off very nicely (great palate cleanser and a defuser if the chilli’s too much), and a citrus dressed salad.

Think you can cram in more food? Maybe towards the end of the month when we’re allowed to meet with up to five people outside then the deluxe kit could be the one for you. You get everything mentioned above as well as roti, an awesome coleslaw to balance out the spicy food and macaroni cheese (this was another very close favourite of all the dishes).

Wondering what the cherry is on this fine feast? It’s Michelle’s incredible Scotch Bonnet Mayo, which is an optional extra and something I’d definitely recommend if you love your spice.

Spain – Tostada

We can’t wait to get back to Spain and thanks to Tostada’s Spain-loving, flavour-embracing, tomato-obsessed chef, our tastebuds can at least take a journey.

The destination here is Valencia – home of the legendary paella. Fun fact: the dish gets its name from the pan in which it’s traditionally made – ‘paellera’. And any Spanish chef worth their salt will tell you that if it’s not cooked in a paellera, it’s not a paella. It’s just not the same in a frying pan.

That’s why Tostada includes a paellera in their kit, as well as everything else you’ll need. There are two kit choices – seafood and veggie. The seafood you’ll get in the former monkfish, prawns and mussels from the local fish quay, while the veggie kit includes wild mushrooms, leeks, black truffle, lemon and saffron vegan aioli. Both kits come with the speciality Valencian paella rice, organic sun-dried paprika, saffron threads, homemade sofrito sauce, freshly prepared stock, organic parsley and lemon, and the recipe card which will guide you through the prep. You can order Tostada’s paella kits from Plateaway.

Mexico – Club Mexicana

Travel to sunny Mexico through this great selection of bangin’ vegan taco kits from Club Mexicana. Tacos are Mexico’s go-to street food and Club Mexicana have knocked up two meal kits to choose from. Al Pastor comes with 16 corn tortillas, vegan shawarma, charred pineapple, salsa verde, red onion, chilli lime salt, coriander and limes, while the Cheezeburger Taco Kit is a marriage of the world’s two favourite dishes. This one has been Club Mexicana’s bestseller since their inception last year and comes with the ground ‘beef’, Club Mex queso, burger sauce, pico de gallo, pickled cucumber, chilli lime salt, coriander, limes and a stack of corn tortillas.

Ever tried vegan short ribs? If not then now’s your chance because Club Mex’s jackfruit ribs are famous! They’ve been on the telly and everything. Then there’s the Fully Loaded Nachos, which are legendary at festivals and have been saving hungover party people since 2014! Ah festivals, remember them? Soon come.

Club Mexican kits can be ordered from Plateaway.

USA – Dirty Bones 

These guys deliver NYC-inspired food, meaning you can take a big bite from the Big Apple. There are four Dirty Bones burger kits to choose from, including the Dirty Vegan Chilli Cheeseburger, The Hero Kit, Mac Daddy and The Classic. All of them serve four people, apart from The Hero which serves two.

Let’s start with The Classic. This comes with 8x burger patties, 8x American cheese slices, 8x seeded brioche buns, Dijonnaise, onion and gherkin. Next up is the Mac Daddy, which is the most popular. The kit comes with 8x patties, 4x cooked macaroni, 4x American cheese slices, 1x mac and cheese sauce, 4x pulled beef short rib marinated in espresso spiked bbq sauce and 4x seeded brioche buns.

The Hero kit is 2x Mac Daddy burgers with a portion of lamb fries and 1x Old Fashioned cocktail (which is 2-3 drinks). Wondering about those lamb fries? Same here. Mouthwatering lamb belly, skinny fries, onion and garlic salt, jalapeno dressing, white miso glaze, spring onion and chilli. Oh yeah!

You can order Dirty Bones from Plateaway.