We were very excited to be chosen to taste test some new products through "Tried and Tested" and was sent an interesting box from The Spice Pioneer to try. If you sign up to the Spice Pioneer they will give you opportunities to try dishes from all other the world and send you recipes and information for you to experience the food from each country. Each box is themed for a different country.
We are known in our family for our jams, marmalade and baking and for adding extra spices and flavours to make them more interesting. So we were really pleased and excited to try a meal idea from The Spice Pioneer.
We opened it up and found a postcard from The Spice Pioneer who had visited Sri Lanka and told us of the visit to the market in Columbo "where frying spices filled the air"and how they washed elephant calves at an elephant orphanage. The idea then was for us to try some recipes that The Spice Pioneer had tried on the visit. Inside the box was all the spices we would need to make the 3 dishes along with full instructions. The dishes included beetroot curry, Sri Lankan monkfish curry with basmati rice, spicy green beans and black mustard seeds.
The spices included cinnamon, fenugreek seeds, coriander, different curry powders, curry leaves,tamarind paste, black mustard seeds. These were all measured out ready for our recipe. We had never used fenugreek, curry leaves or tamarind before so we were excited to find out what it tasted like.
We chose to make the meal after school. We are a busy family and had 1 hour 30 minutes before we were due to go out. We were able to prepare the meal in about one hour and then had time to relax and enjoy it.The kitchen was soon filled with unfamiliar smells of spices we had never tried before. As we only had a relatively short time, my Mum and I decided to make the meal together. This also meant that everything could be cooked at the same time. All three dishes included onions so we chopped those all up first, then prepared the garlic, chilli and ginger.
Our first dish to be made was the beetroot curry. This was very easy to make and we could not stop tasting this. It had a caramelised, sweet spicy taste which everyone loved. Then it was on to the curry dish and the beans while we cooked the rice. The instructions were very easy to follow. There was just one little mistake on the leaflet as for each 3 dishes it said to use half a pot of curry leaves so we did not have enough. We decided to leave them out to the spicy green beans as that dish was already spicy. We also decided not to add the chilli to this dish.
As we made the meal and ate the meal we played the Sri Lankan music that was suggested and downloaded from The Spice Pioneer website, that created a nice atmosphere to make a Sri Lankan experience more realistic.
Everyone in the family enjoyed the meal. The beetroot curry was amazing and is a lovely dish that would be easy to re-create another day. We loved the Sri Lankan curry and decided to use prawns rather than monkfish as we thought everyone would like this more. This curry was spicy and creamy and full of taste. We saved some of our curry for the next night as we felt there was already enough to eat. We found the Spicy green beans quite spicy and was glad we had not added the curry leaves and chilli as these were hot enough for us.The basmati rice was a good balance to the spices.
We loved making this meal and it was a special treat for us. The recipes were easy to prepare and it was good to cook them together. This was our first experience of Sri Lankan food and we would love to try more recipes from Sri Lanka. It was also the first time we had tried The Spice Pioneer and we think it gave us a lovely family experience of the sights, smells, and sounds of Sri Lanka. We would recommend the Spice Pioneer box as a fun present for a family or for someone who would like to entertain 4 people for a fun and tasty meal.
The subscription to The Spice Pioneer costs £27 for 3 months and you can choose 3 months, 6 months (£52.50) or a year (£99).
Reviewed by Christopher and his Mum
