There never seems to be enough time in my life – it’s my eternal moan. So when it comes to cooking and feeding just myself, it needs to be instantaneous. However, I have a great aversion to ‘ready meals’ - to me there is always a bit of a strange after taste (could it be the detergent from the food vats?) Anyway, I’m always extremely suspicious when it comes to food items that you ‘just pop in the microwave’. But when I recently went to a shopping preview evening with Really Wild Clothing I got chatting to a very affable fellow called David Holliday who, along with fellow chef Oliver Shute have launched their very own David Oliver ‘ready meals.’ David told me “Ah but these are different… I’ve produced a range of fine foods that are traditional dishes – all of which are restaurant quality and can be prepared in your own home for the fraction of the price of going out to eat. Go on please try out our meals, and tell me what you you think.” OK so that sounded like a good challenge to me! So as promised, I eagerly brought a selection back into the office for us all to try...
The David Oliver range consists of three classic country meals based on game and wild foods; the Classic Venison Stew, Rabbit and Flageolet Beans and Guinea Fowl and Lentils. David Oliver insist on sourcing the finest and freshest ingredients from the best producers of game and wild food and use traditional slow cooking methods to give the dishes their rich flavour and authentic restaurant-quality. Unlike traditional ready meals who often skimp on their meat content, the David Oliver dishes are packed with hearty chunks of game and the type of rich sauces we’ve come to only expect from restaurant cuisine. And as all the dishes are free of any additives, preservatives or stabilisers. I'm also very happy to report in that we all at The Amazing Blog thought that each of the different dishes were absolutely delicious AND quickly added, I couldn't taste any strange artificial after-tastes!
Thanks to their recent success, the range is now expanding to include four new ragu sauces including slow-braised British Pork with Red Wine, Smoked Bacon and Rosemary and Venison with Red Wine and Juniper Berry sauce which can be used as an accompaniment to pasta, topped on a jacket potato, or simply served with crusty bread and a green salad for a quick and satisfying meal - yum! After a busy and stressful day in the Amazing PR office it's such a relief to know that we have the helping hand in the kitchen from David Oliver, safe in the knowledge that not only is every meal mouthwateringly tasty, it is also balanced and complete, nutritious and healthy. The meals even provide two of your five-a-day and all for less than 300 calories… ahem, please note that these are certainly not your traditional ready meal...
David Oliver ready meals cost £5.99 and are available from selected Waitrose shops and from Ocado. Ragus cost £3.70 and are available from Ocado, and all their products can be purchased online here with delivery nationwide.