Editor Karine Torr tries out some chef made, home cooked style dishes which usually end up on your plate at various popular restaurants on the high street.
They arrived frozen in a cardboard box and plastic pouches (nothing like the glamorous food shots you see in an expensive recipe book, I must say, but they hid the treats that were to come). We kept out the red Thai curry for a family try out – the rest went back into the freezer.
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The great test
I had ordered from the wide range of meals that cater for all the various family tastes. There were a couple of vegetarian options, and some curried meat and chicken dishes. I thought I would also try the basmati rice, and James from Mustard threw some pasta shells into the bargain. Following his instructions, I popped them into a pot to gently warm them up to serving temperature. Whatever early suspicions we might have had were quickly dispelled with the first delicious fork full of the red Thai curry we had chosen. It was juicy and flavourful, full of those lovely rich Thai flavours of lemon grass, bamboo shoots and kafir leaves, as exotic and succulent as anything you’d get at an authentic Thai restaurant. Just delicious!
The next day we tried the Rogan Josh lamb curry which was simply spectacular, just the right amount of curry although, as my husband likes it super strong, he added a few chillies himself and was very happy. It was just as impressive, authentic, fresh and just as delicious. Our family vegetarian was also more than appeased by the Katsu curry which had a lovely coconutty flavour with butternut, and she didn’t even add salt!
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Of all the adaptations we’ve had to make during lockdown this has got to be one of the most surprising and enjoyable alternatives to the real world. The dishes were a huge success and a great alternative to slaving over a hot stove cooking everything from scratch yourself. DARLING£10 CODE FOR DISCOUNT
Supplying 32 restaurant groups before Covid
Mustard Family Foods was more of an ‘under the radar’ brand, founded in 1974 originally catering to the high society of London including the Royal Family and up until March they supplied 32 restaurant groups, across the UK, including some very well-known chains one would never suspect! You can now enjoy a wide range of the delicious meals you used to get from your favourite restaurants before lockdown so cruelly snatched away the pleasures of them including 36 products like curries, Thai and Indian, vegetarian dishes and creative sauces for sale and over the next few weeks they will be adding caponata, sweet potato chilli, minestrone soup and a cauliflower & cheddar soup to the menu.
Based in Wimbledon and run by the delightful James Durrant, Mustard are now packaging and delivering to various post codes around London.
Amazingly Mustard has also been getting into the community spirit too by partnering with organisations in the London area to provide over 300,000 meals to frontline NHS and essential workers over the past few months.
A huge charity drive
Meals are still also being directed to vulnerable people and communities who do not have access to food, including CriticalNHS, Hospitality For Heroes, and Open Kitchens UK. They are still supporting the PLOD Foundation with Homeless people living in Putney Hotel, Voices of Hope with Kingstonaid Food Hub and continue with the NHS with St Barts Hospital, The Royal London Hospital, Accident & Emergency and Goodmayes Hospital. “When the COVID-19 crisis hit, we knew we had to think out the box or we would become one of the economic casualties. But we couldn’t do so without also recognising the important need to serve communities,” Durrant told me.
People also like to know where their meat is coming from these days and all of Mustard’s beef and chicken is Red Tractor Certified https://www.redtractor.org.uk/
Darling offer: £10 off with the code DARLING£10 when you order (quote this on checkout – ONLY TO BE USED ONCE)
Minimum orders £25 and free delivery to selected London postcodes. You still get £10 off the £25 minimum for your first order.
For catering contracts call James Durrant on 020 3848 1300 to discuss.
