Aldi: Limited Edition and Retro for your Kitchen

Aldi are known for their weekly deals.  They produce a booklet weekly with the coming offers helping you plan your shopping for the upcoming week.  They call them 'Specialbuys' and include at least 6 fruits or vegetables at a really low price and various foods that are on offer.

The 'thing' with the 'Specialbuys' is that they are limited in quantity and when they are gone they are gone! Starting today (06 July 2017) the kitchen items are retro influenced.  The main range comes in three great colours; red, cream and light blue.

I was sent a selection from this retro collection.

The Retro Juicer takes me back to my early married years when I really wanted to get a hand press juicer with the lever arch. Available in red, cream, light blue or orange and will retain at £12.99.

I think I shall visit the market on Saturday to stock up on oranges!! I will be juice happy!

Enamel has always been a favourite of mine. I have built up a collection of enamel mugs, individual serving dishes, pots and pans and more.  I was really excited to get this enamel oven dish.  It is available in three colours and oven safe up to 250oC.

It is a good size for a lasagna for a family of four or roast chicken pieces and really so much more.  The retail price is £12.99.

Also in the enamel with a lid  range is a Casserole Dish with Lid, a 16cm pan with lid and as shown below a 14cm milk pan also with a lid.  The pans retail at £9.99 each and also come in three colours

Retro Storage Jar, each 1.1 litre capacity and come in a range of five designs.  They have lids and would make great tea and coffee containers.

Mr R was excited with this 3 in 1 Retro Grill.  It has a hotplate, griddle and kebab grill.  It comes with skewers and the skewer rack is detachable

This immensely popular and really versatile and useful electric item will retail at £29.99 and comes with a 3 year warranty!

Also in the range is a Retro Under Counter Fridge, Retro Microwave, toaster and kettle, stick blender with accessories and more.  Pop down to your local Aldi and remember they are only available while stocks last!

I was sent a selection of products from the current Aldi Specialbuys.  I was not required to write a positive review.  As usual all photos are my own and may not be reproduced in any form without my written permission.

It's Spring - It's Easter - It's Aldi

If it's Spring then it must be Easter and that means a trip to my local Aldi to feed the family for Easter weekend.

It's all well and good having a lovely roast lamb on Easter Sunday with all the roast trimmings but what about Good Friday or Easter Saturday?  Aldi have a fresh casserole pack of chicken pieces and ready chopped vegetables for £2.99 and along with a pack of baby button mushrooms for £0.79 I will be making a large chicken casserole, using two packs of each which will result in enough food for those at home at supper time on Easter Saturday and anyone who comes in later.  Any left overs can be frozen for up to 3 months as well.

Of course Easter wouldn't be Easter without Hot Cross Buns.  I have made them from scratch before but that is surely a labour of love.  Sometimes you need a Hot Cross Bun now!  Aldi offer a pack of 4 with mixed fruit or chocolate pieces for £0.99 per pack.  They are moist and tasty and instant happiness!

I am not a great fan of Easter eggs however I do love to give Mr R one - I got this lovely chocolate egg with little truffles inside for £2.99.  This will look lovely on the breakfast table with Hot Cross Buns and a pot of tea for Easter breakfast!

And of course I couldn't leave the shop without a chocolate bunny (or three).  I couldn't decide if I wanted the white chocolate, milk chocolate or dark chocolate so I bought all three!! They will satisfy my evening chocolate craving for a while!

Many thanks to Aldi for the vouchers to purchase the above products.  I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions and photos are my own.

Easter Cocktails from Aldi

I do like a glass of rum (or two!!) especially when I am on holiday but here is an excuse to drink some at home.  Aldi sent me a lovely hamper full of drinks and chocolate (well, it is Easter after all!) and some recipes for creating cocktails and also suggestions to enjoy some great drinks with our Easter food.

The hamper had goodies such as cider which would go perfectly with pork over the Easter holiday. Use to help deglaze the roasting tin if you are having roast pork or add to a pork and apple casserole.  The Orchard Cider is priced in store at £0.99 each.

Or a Sparkling Chardonnay wich would pair really well with a roast chicken or small roast turkey for this Spring holiday. The Sparkling Cardonnay is available in store for £6.99.

I decided to try the recipe that came with the hamper which used both the dark run and the white rum and coconut to make what I called the 'Easter Bunny'.  I got all the ingredients together and put Mr R on standby ready to taste an Easter treat.

This was a very simple concoction.  I grated some white chocolate and dark chocolate on seperate places to sprinkle on top and I also used the dark chocolate gratings to rim the glasses.

 

This cocktail was quite dangerous! It tasted lovely but was quite strong however went down far too quickly!

The Hopking Dark Rum costs £9.99 and the Cocobay Caribbean White Rum & Coconut Blend is £4.99 in most branches of Aldi.

There was also a bottle of Pinot Noir red wine to drink with a lovely leg of roast lamb this Easter or in fact any time.

What will you be eating and drinking this Easter? Please leave a comment below.

I received the hamper of Easter treats from Aldi but I did not receive any payment to write this post.  All opinions and photos are my own.

 

Treat Your Valentine with Aldi

Aldi have a little booklet of special buys each week. The current issue has some suggestions for putting together a romantic and tasty meal to treat your Valentine.  The magazine has several starter and main course combinations to pick such as Breaded Garlic Mushrooms, Scottish Cooked Mussels and Specially Selected Fillet Steak or Risotto and Mixed Leaf Salad.

I was asked by Aldi to treat my Valentine (Mr R) and although I liked their suggestions I preferred to pick and mix and to come up with my own special Valentine inspired meal.

The main ingredients I bought were Breaded Camembert, Turkey Steaks and Gnocchi.

The breaded camembert can be cooked in the oven or shallow fried.  To go with them I a 'slaw' with celeriac and carrot thinly peeled with a Julienne peeler to which I added Hellman's Mayo with Lemon, Creme Fraiche and some chopped beetroot (left over from the heart cut outs - see below)

The Gnocchi I cooked in salted boiling water and drained them.  In the pan I melted a small knob of butter, some pesto and a ball of mozzarella chopped up.  I put this all in a baking dish with the gnocchi, sprinkled freshly grated parmegianno reggiano cheese and popped it into the oven on low to keep warm.

The rest of the main course was Turkey Steaks in a creamy peppercorn sauce. I started with the usual finely chopped onion and celery and sauteed in a know of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil. When translucent I added the turkey steaks and pan fried them. I placed them in an ovenproof dish whilst I made the sauce.  A splash of white wine, 200gm Philadelphia cream cheese and cracked black pepper. Pour over the turkey steaks and keep warm in the oven.

So here is the final result.  Starter - Aldi 

Mr R loved his special meal!

The main course:-

 

I was sent a voucher to purchase the main ingredients of my meal from Aldi. I was not paid to write this post and all opionions and recipes are my own.



Stocking up the wine rack with Aldi

This year (2014) I want to add to my wine rack at a regular basis and hopefully faster than I drink them!  I love walking into the living room and glancing at a full wine rack - a satisfying sort of warm feeling even before drinking any.

I was asked by Aldi to review a selection of their wines which I was of course happy to receive.

I don't often think of popping into my local Aldi when I want to buy some wine but really must start thinking of them in terms of serious wine merchants.

The first two are white:-

Freeman's Bay (Marlborough) Sauvignon Blanc 2013 (New Zealand)

A very easy to drink white wine which makes a superb aperitif but goes incredibly well with cheese and creamy dishes.  I will be drinking this with the scalloped potato dish I make with a layer of French cheese in between the potato and onion.

Australian Limestone Coast Chardonnay from The Exquisite Collection.  I have stayed away from Australian white, often too oaky for me but this one is unoaked, dry, 2013 Vintage and has mentions of honeysuckle, white peach and fresh pineapple.  A fresh and balanced white wine which will go so well with shellfish or party nibbles.

We now come to the reds, and one of my favourite wine regions is Bordeaux and I am particularly fond of Claret, a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  This is a full bodied wine which hits the senses with notes of blackcurrant, rich velvet plums and tangy cedar so characteristic of wine from this region.

The final of the selection I received is another offering from the Bordeaux region. This is a Bordeaux Superieur 2011, the classic blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon - it's fruity aromas of raspberry and blackberry, spice and full tannin make it a sure hit as a partner to your Sunday roast beef!

You can find out more about these wines and the rest of the extensive range Aldi have in-store by clicking here.

I received the above mentioned wines to taste and enjoy and to review.  I did not receive any payment to write this post and all opinions are my own. Thanks Aldi.

 

 

 

 

Sunday Soup - Fava Bean and Ham

I like to make a pot of soup on a Sunday afternoon.  This week I used the stock I made from boiling the Christmas gammon I got from Aldi to cook and review.

This gammon has fed us on Christmas Day, cold cuts on Boxing Day, creamy cheese and ham noodles and now a lovely fava bean and ham soup. That's pretty good going for one gammon.

I was given a box of split, dried fava beans in the summer in my Food Blogger Connect goodie bag.  They are from Hodmedod's and the box comes with a mini recipe book and a good description of the beans.

Fava beans are tasty and very good for you and really easy to cook with.  Basically cover with water or stock, bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes then simmer for 20-30 minutes.

For this week's soup I started by chopping and sauteeing an onion, two garlic cloves and two sticks of celery.  Instead of using butter or sunflower oil, this time I used some of the goose fat I received from Cooks&Co before Christmas.

Whilst this was getting some colour I put about half of the package of fava beans in another pot and boiled following the instructions on the pack.  When they were cooked I put about 2/3 of the beans in the soup pot and liquidised it all.  I seasoned the soup with black pepper, Tabasco sauce.  I didn't add salt because the gammon was pretty salty in the first place.

I added the last 1/3 of the fava beans to the soup so there is a little texture.

 

The finished soup - this will keep me and Mr R in lunches for the week - if it lasts that long!!

I didn't receive any payment for writing this post.  I used leftovers from our Christmas gammon and was not required to write this post.

Hamming it up with Aldi this Christmas!!

I was asked to review a Three Bird Roast from Aldi this year for Christmas and as I had already been asked to review one for another supermarket I thought it would make a good comparison blog post.

However, by the time I got the voucher and managed to get to my local Aldi store they had run out of Three Bird Roasts and said they may possibly get some further stocks in on the 23rd or 24th of December.  I decided that would be cutting it too close and made a snap decision to purchase a gammon instead.

Aldi has a variety of hams and gammons and I picked a non smoked one with a bone.  Looking forward to left overs and soups!

I have a large stock pot but it wasn't really big enough for a 4.8kg gammon leaving quite a bit poking out from the top of the water.  I boiled the water once, drained it then filled it up again this time adding four large carrots sliced, two sticks of celery, two onions sliced and pepper.  I didn't add salt as gammon can sometime be quite salty.

I brought the water to the boil and let the whole pot bubble away for about three hours.  Every hour I turned the meat to make sure it would be evenly cooked through.

After the boiling I put the meat on a roasting tin, took off the outer layer of skin and made a few slashed to help get the glaze into.

I then based it with a heated mix of Barbados molasses, honey and ground chilli flakes.

 

I heated the oven to 180oF and roasted the meat for another couple of hours, basting it every 30 minutes.  The resulting piece of meat was so tender and sliced really evenly and thinly.

I prepared and cooked the meat on Christmas Eve primarily because of the length of time it would take to cook through (it weighed 4.8kg).

The gammon was tasty and I feel the mixture I coated it with tasted really lovely.  I served the meat on a really large platter with the sliced Three Bird Roast and roasted parsnips and carrots.

We have had sliced gammon and cheese and pickles for Boxing Day tea.

I kept the liquid that I cooked the gamon in which will make a great base for a lentil and ham soup and/or a ham and vegetable soup.

 

I received the ham from Aldi to cook for Christmas Day but I didn't receive any payment nor was I obliged to write a favourable post.