Food

Filled fresh pasta is a bit of a family staple in this house and it makes a quick and easy meal, when we are short on time.  I love the fact that they are cooked almost instantly and usually they don’t need a lot of sauce because of the filling.

Dell’ Ugo send me some samples to try and we tried them out for a family meal.  I think though that they are a bit of a grown up sort of taste experience and would be better served to adults. There are some strong tastes and flavours in the range and they might not suit children.

My pick of the bunch was the Asparagus and Mozzarella with Lemon Butter.  These ingredients are basically some of my favourite foods and it’s a great combination of flavours. The pack came with the filled fresh pasta and a little pack of flavoured butter.  After you have drained the pasta, you melt the butter in the pan and return the pasta to the pan to coat the parcels with the sauce. Then serve with parmesan and/or black pepper to your personal taste. I really enjoyed this bowl, although there was slightly too much butter for me and I didn’t feel I needed any parmesan.

Next up was the Goat’s Cheese and Beetroot with Mint Butter variety. This was less successful for me. There was too much butter by quite a long way so it was very greasy and with parmesan as well it was over done.  I wish I’d left the parmesan off as you don’t really need it with the goat’s cheese.

There are 5 fresh pasta meals in the Dell’Ugo range, so there will be one to suit most people.  I liked the fact that you don’t need to buy a separate sauce. It all comes included.

I was invited along to try the cuisine at Tamatanga on Navigation Street in Birmingham.  Obviously here in Birmingham we are well endowed with Indian restaurants, so I was keen to see if Tamatanga could add something new to the mix of Indian dining establishments.

The decor is the first thing that strikes you as you go into Tamatanga.  As you can see it’s quite striking and not what you expect from a traditional curry house and that’s because it’s not, so don’t expect to find any flock wallpaper here. It’s a very modern vibe and generally very comfortable, although the seating in our section was either a little too big for the area, or maybe it needed one less table as it was a little difficult for the waiting staff to get past as the restaurant filled up. I really liked the colourful look and I think it made it clear that the food here was going to be a little bit different and certainly have a modern twist.

We started the evening sampling the cocktail menu.  I do find that cocktails go nicely with Asian cuisine and generally pick something long and refreshing to drink like this Berry Bombay cocktail made from vodka and pink lemonade with plenty of berries.  There’s plenty of choice on the drinks menu including a range of craft beers including Tailgate Peanut Butter Milk Stout which I wish I’d spotted earlier as I’d have liked to give it a go.

For my main course I picked out the Tamatanga Salmon and I wasn’t disappointed.  It was wonderfully moist and aromatic. It’s a salmon fillet that’s cooked with a light and fresh blend of tamatanga’s spices and served with their in-house tamatanga chutney.

As ever lots of goodies in this month’s Degustabox.  I’d never thought of making my own egg custard, but Green’s Egg Custard Mix makes that easy.  Another thing that makes cooking easy is this Knorr Concentrated Stock which is perfect for adding to stews or bolognese sauce to add extra meaty flavour.  Wild Planet Albacore Wild Tuna Steaks are ranked number one in the US by Greenpeace for sustainability which is good to know.  I try to make sure all my fish comes from sustainable sources.

Latin American Kitchen by Santa Maria is the perfect thing for those evenings when you need to prepare your food fast.  There are five different flavours of rice and five different flavours of sauce to choose from, so there’s plenty of variety.

I’d never really thought about beer having gluten in it, but this San Miguel beer is gluten-free, which is great for those who enjoy a beer and have problems with gluten. Cheerios Oat Crisp makes a crunchy start to the day and it contains beta-glucan from oat fibre which is good for the heart as it helps reduce cholesterol.  It’s good that there is such a range of dairy free alternatives to milk now.  In this Degustabox we get to try Dream Ancient Grains made from a blend of oat, spelt, buckwheat and linseed.  I have a full value voucher to try out Seriously Spreadable Squares which are great for picnics or lunch boxes and they are made from tangy Scottish cheddar. Virtue Energy Water is a naturally sugar-free energy drink with the same amount of natural caffeine as a cup of coffee. Some lovely treats too in this month’s box like the Mentos Mint Mix Sharing Pouch and the Green & Black’s Velvet Edition (I’m not prepared to share that one).