New In The Kitchen January 2016

It’s been another busy month in the All That I’m Eating kitchen, there’s been all sorts to try. I do love getting a parcel that’s full of something new or different that I may not have heard of or tried before; there’s always something going on! This new in the kitchen January round up is no different; pandan extract, elderflower iced tea and a whole host of things made out of coconut. I only ever put up products that I feel are worth trying; ideas for you to keep your eyes peeled for when you’re out and about.

I think these little cartons that these Hampstead Teas come in are really sweet and I like the fact that they are smaller than the larger bottles of iced tea you can get; too much sugar in one of those for me. These iced teas come in four flavours: elderflower, lemon, peach and raspberry. I have to say I’m not sure I have a favourite as each one has its merits depending on your mood or time of day. The flavours are obvious without being overpowering, a little different to some of the others I’ve seen and none of the teas are too sweet. I’ve really enjoyed having these in the fridge over the last few weeks. I love the idea of packing one of these and a few little sandwiches up for a spring picnic; how charming!

There are all sorts of recipe boxes around each offering something different so I was intrigued to try the Kitchen Trotters box. Each month they send through some core ingredients from the particular country they are focusing on that month. You then buy the other ingredients to make the rest of the meal. The country I had was Indonesia with a great selection of ingredients and a recipe card to go with them: gado gado, kecap manis, terasi, combava leaves, lemongrass powder, pandan extract and kemiri nuts. The thing I like about this box is it offers flexibility; you can buy the perishable ingredients when you want to cook up the recipe so you could do them all in a week or spread them out over a month and do one a week. I think it’s a great idea for expanding your recipe knowledge and trying new things.

When I was younger, and to be honest now, a Crunchie was my favourite chocolate bar, the bar of choice when faced with a wall of chocolate bars to choose from. Still now if something has honeycomb in it I will gravitate towards it. I couldn’t wait to try these two products from Mighty Fine Honeycomb. The first was orange flavoured, dark chocolate coated honeycomb pieces which were delicious although I think the orange flavour that was left once you had finished the piece was a bit strong for me. The Salted Honeycomb bar was so good; just the right amount of salt and a generous envelope of chocolate around the honeycomb; a great authentic honeycomb taste and texture. I’ll certainly be keeping my eye out for these.

The choice of gin around now is amazing; so many different styles and brands from all over the place. The latest gin to grace my kitchen table was from Whitely Neill. I love the matt black bottle; in full size this would be a great one for the drinks cupboard. This is definitely a gin and tonic gin, as opposed to a gin for cocktail making gin, and I added a nice wedge of lime to mine. Inspired by Africa and distilled in England this looks and tastes different to other gins that I have tried. If you want to switch up your usual gin, this one would certainly be worth a try.

First of all I had no idea this many different things could be made out of coconut and second of all that all this turning up would inspire me to make as many new things as I have. The full run down of Coconut Merchant products I tried are as follows: coconut flakes, coconut oil, coconut jam, coconut syrup, coconut sugar, coconut milk and coconut chips. The coconut oil and flakes have been great to use in granola, the flakes are so big they keep their texture when baked. The jam is good on toast and the syrup on yoghurt or porridge. The coconut cream went into a curry (so useful it’s in a half can size) and the coconut chips were a brilliant alternative snack, really crispy and slightly sweet and salty. I’ve really enjoyed playing around with these ingredients; some are more coconut-y than others so if you’re a fan of coconut I would recommend getting your hands on some of these Coconut Merchant goodies!

We Are Tea specialise in whole leaf teas and I have been really enjoying a cup of this Darjeeling in the afternoons. All their teas are ethically sourced and they have a huge number of awards for their teas. I like it when I can enjoy eating or drinking a product and that the people behind the product care about what goes in it; looks good, tastes good and does good. This tea has a great depth of flavour and this particular tea was blended for Contact the Elderly. All the profits from this afternoon Darjeeling are being donated to the Contact the Elderly charity who tackle isolation and loneliness amongst older people.

I am a bit of a juice lover; freshy squeezed, smoothies and all sorts I’ll try them all. If I had to choose then freshly squeezed juice would be my go to but as I don’t have a juicer I normally have to wait until I go out and about to get my hands on some. These juices from B Fresh are different though as they are cold pressed which means they taste much fresher and full of flavour; the ginger in this particular blend was pretty punchy! Made in Shropshire, this Winter Warmer blend is available limited edition.

Quite a lot of variety this month, looking forward to what February brings!

Thank you to Hampstead Teas, Kitchen Trotter, Mighty Fine Honeycomb, Whitely Neill, Coconut Merchant, We Are Tea and B Fresh. All opinions expressed are my own.