Deli at Home Review

I’ve tried out a few different recipe boxes now and I really enjoy sampling new ones; I like the variety and diversity of recipes and it gives me an opportunity to cook things that I haven’t tried before. The most recent box to arrive in my kitchen was one from Deli at Home. The three recipes I chose to try were: Chicken Bhuna Gosht, Tonkatsu Pork and Mushroom Stroganoff.

I really liked that all the ingredients were sent in individual paper bags (for the ambient ones) and plastic bags (for chilled) that I could just put straight in the fridge when it arrived. It made it really easy to grab the two bags and get cooking. It was also a nice touch that they sent a box of pistachio biscuits with the box as a little sweet treat after the meal.

The first recipe we tried out was the Chicken Bhuna Gosht. It was easy to prepare and the amount of chicken sent was really generous. Mixing the spices together and frying the onions, garlic and ginger filled the kitchen with amazing smells. It was easy to cook, it took a little longer than the suggested thirty minutes but I think we cut the chicken a bit larger than recommended so it took longer to cook. Although it smelled really good when it was cooking I was a bit disappointed with the flavour; it lacked a bit of punch and depth but it was still very enjoyable.

Next we moved on to the Tonkatsu Pork. I always like using pork tenderloin and I was looking forward to trying this recipe out. It was easy to prepare although there seemed to be a stage missing about when to use the tonkatsu sauce; I wasn’t sure whether to heat it or have it cold so I chucked it into the pan after the pork came out to warm it through. The jasmine rice with this was some of the best rice I’ve ever cooked and the nigella seeds that you put on afterwards gave the whole dish a really nice added flavour. The tonkatsu sauce was really punchy, full of mustard and spices. The cabbage salad on the side was surprisingly delicious; I loved the miso dressing that went on it.

Lastly we cooked up the Mushroom Stroganoff. This was my favourite of all the recipes we tried and one that I will definitely make again as I tend to have carrots, leeks and mushrooms turn up regularly in my veg box. The veg were all cooked until lovely and soft and the smoky paprika cream sauce was delicious mopped up with the gnocchi. I thought frying the gnocchi was a step that you could miss out if you wanted to but it added a bit of crispiness.

I thought the quality of the ingredients was very good, it was easy to use and the instructions were simple to follow. The box I tried was for three meals for two people (six meals in total) and costs £39. The ingredients that came in the box I thought were of a good quality and the portions were generous without being too much or too little. Because everything came in bags there wasn’t a lot of packaging to throw away which is always good. I found it quite hard to choose which three meals to order as all of them sounded like my kind of food.

Thank you to Deli and Home for the recipe box. All opinions expressed are my own.