If the last two years have created anything, it’s a need to be able to enjoy more from the comfort of our own home. Our homes have become workplaces, centres of entertainment, play zones and much more. We have all spent so much more time at home than ever and this has opened up new opportunities for businesses to provide services that assist that – including fine dining.
Of course, we all love good food and the chance to eat top rated food at home is well received – say hello to the chef-made home dining meal kits. There are more and more of these now available covering all regions of food, taste and (somewhat) budget. From raising the standards and choices of the humble takeaway to getting to prepare incredible michelin-star food at home.
From a wonderful birthday gift, we got to enjoy an Iberica vegan spanish tapas meal from the comfort of our home. The Iberica meal kits come almost fully ready made with a small amount of prep and heating up required.
As it was tapas we aimed to have it all ready at the same time to be able to sit and enjoy it with a glass of wine. We may have, excuse the pun, bitten off more than we could chew, with a few yelps of frustration, hurried searching for which ingredient was which and snatching the instructions back and forth from each other as we battled round the kitchen but it was worth it. We sat down, when all was beautifully plated up and the wine was poured to a scrumptious mix of spanish delights.
MENU
Toasted Bread with tomato
Tasty simple fresh dish to compliment the more complex flavours of other dishes. Could have done with a little more bread as a small amount for two people, but perhaps we are just being greedy – and this something that could easily be supplemented by ourselves
Padron peppers (peppery, sweet with a nutty flavour)
Quick easy fry up for my favourite peppers – still a bit of bite to them with a soft inside.
Patatas Bravas (Potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce)
This tapas classic was a nice flavour but perhaps a little lacking in texture as the potatoes weren’t crispy enough – we should have tried grilling for longer to achieve this.
Griddled aubergine steak with vegetable glaze
The only dish we were a little disappointed with. The aubergine arrived looking a little sorry for itself and not quite the ‘steak’ format that would have probably caramelised better in the frying pan. Tasty but with a slight bitter aftertaste. Served with rocket which was lovely to have something fresh.
Fried artichoke with lemon zest
Big artichoke fans and this was an easy prep and cook with a delicious result – rather effective creating a flower from the vegetable.
Pumpkin Asada (a dish with labneh, seeds, nasturtium leaves and kumquat)
So tasty and a really god mix of flavours and textures (even though we were missing the labneh!) A lovely pumpkin dish that I would definitely try to recreate again.
Escalivada with olive tapenade and casava crisps (grilled vegetables)
Really tasty blend of grilled vegetables, lovely olive tapenade and the crisps made a good texture mix to the soft vegetables.
Cabbage with horseradish and mustard
The flavours for this were delicious. The almond cream really complimented the cabbage and other flavours used. It was lovely to use new (to me) ingredients like caperberries.
This is a definite recommendation for this at home dining experiment, which I would use again. It is a mid priced meal and the spread of dishes is a good amount for two people. Just need to order the sangria and brush up on my Spanish!
THE LOCAL VEGAN 