I'm not going to lie, I've kind of fallen out of love with cooking a bit this year and I've basically been all about whatever is easy and requires very little effort! I think because I've had so much going on and some very up and down months, it's been hard to find the motivation to create new and exciting meals so I've just been sticking to the old favourites. The last few weeks though I've made a real effort to try some new things and to get back into it because cooking genuinely makes me so happy. I love creating delicious meals, so I was very happy to receive something to help me with that from Simply Cook.
Most people have probably heard of Simply Cook but if you haven't, they are a recipe based subscription box and they provide you with four recipes each month and four non-perishable ingredients e.g. seasoning and sauces. Each recipe card comes with step by step instructions so brilliant for those who are maybe new to cooking and it also has a little shopping list section which clearly tells you what other ingredients you'll need to pick up to make the meals. The box I was sent contained recipes for Chipotle Grilled Steak Salad, Nyonya, Thai Red Prawn Curry and Vietnamese Pork. All very exciting and different to what I usually make.
Vietnamese Pork
This was the first recipe we tried and I don't think I have words for how tasty it was! I love cooking up pork loin steaks to have with rice anyway, it's a staple meal for us as it's cheap and easy, but it can be a little bit bland sometimes, so all of the seasoning which was provided just completely changed up the meal. The little recipe box for this contained beef stock, sriracha sauce and fish paste. All I had to do was first bring water to the boil for the rice, stir in the beef stock then cook the rice to packet instructions. For the pork, I just fried 2 loin steaks in a small pan until cooked through, and then I sliced them. In a seperate frying pan I fried some frozen onion til soft then added in a tsp of sugar, the fish paste and around 20ml of water. I let this bubble away until it started to thicken and then I added in the pork strips. After giving everything a good mix, I then added in the sriracha sauce and it was ready to serve! I was a little sceptical about how the rice would be because I've never cooked it in any sort of stock before but it just made a subtle difference so I'd definitely do this again in future. The pork was juicy and full of flavour and together the combination was incredible. Straight away after finishing this, both me and George wanted to have it again the week after!
Chipotle Grilled Steak Salad
The next meal we tried was the Chipotle Steak and it was a perfect meal for a Saturday night. Steak can be expensive so we don't have it too often but whenever we do it's always worth it and this meal was the best in a long time. The seasoning included for this meal was a lemon and herb blend, ancho steak rub and chipotle paste. The first step for this was to spread out the ancho rub onto a plate and then press the steak into it making sure it's all covered, then fry in a hot pan for your desired time, we like ours well done so keep it in for a while before leaving to rest. As we didn't make the exact salad pictured on the recipe card, we didn't need the lemon and herb blend as that was for the peppers. We did use the chipotle paste though which had to be mixed into sour cream. To serve we put a load of salad onto a plate, topped with the sliced steak and then drizzled some of the chipotle sour cream mix on top (I did this after I took a picture) and we ended up having it with some onion rings and mac and cheese bites. It was honestly beautiful and one we will definitely be making again soon. The seasonings really do just add something a little bit unique and give it so much flavour. I would have never thought to add chipotle sauce to sour cream before but it made a really great sauce.
Thai Red Curry
The recipe for this included prawns but as neither me, nor George like them, we decided to switch that for chicken instead so ours ended up looking a little different to the original! This was a meal I'd genuinely seen lots of people make before online but had just never given it a go for some reason. The recipe card though fully explained what we needed to do and made it so simple. The box for this included thai red paste, thai red garnish and garlic paste. The first step for this was to make a start on the rice so we just cooked that to packet instructions and then in a seperate pan cooked around 250g of chicken in place of the prawns. When the chicken was cooked we added in the garlic paste and mixed well. We then had to add a large spoonful of coconut milk and the thai red paste, stirring well before adding in the rest of the coconut milk, and leaving to simmer away for around 5 minutes before finally adding in the thai red garnish. This ended up making quite a thick curry and I'm going to be completely honest, it wasn't my favourite. It's not that it was bad and everything included in the box was fine, it just wasn't really to my taste. George though really enjoyed it and ate mine too so really it was me just being a little fussy.
I've absolutely loved trying out this box from Simply Cook, it's given me inspiration for new meals and has made me get back to cooking and having fun with it. Each recipe really is so easy to follow, anyone could do it and it's great for those who are maybe just starting to get into cooking if you're at uni or just for those who are busy at work during the week and don't have time to plan lots of different things. There was a real mix of different recipes included in this box and it's been so nice to try some new meals. Some of these I would have never thought to make and some of the combinations are so unique but so good together. I'll definitely be subscribing to Simply Cook in the future and I really recommend you do too! If you get bored easily or are always making the same meals then a box like this where you get new things to try each month is perfect for you. This box is currently £9.99 and you can find outs lots more info and see some of the other recipes available on their website here.
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