Saitaku Sushi Kit

One of my favourite types of food is Japanese. It is one of those delights I will randomly crave, whether it is sushi or chicken teriyaki, you can never go wrong with a good Japanese meal. At The Amazing Blog, we love trying new foods, especially new brands that allow you to easily cook international food in our own homes! We recently stumbled upon Saitaku, a global brand of authentic Japanese ingredients, which recently launched a line of “cook-from-scratch” products.

Our favourites are their Sushi Kit, the Tempura Batter Mix, and Teriyaki Sauce. The Sushi Kit contains everything you need to make sushi at home. For beginners this is a great kit to ‘wet your feet’ and learn how to make the perfect sushi rolls in several easy steps. The kit includes sushi rice, sushi vinegar, soy sauce, sushi nori, sushi ginger, wasabi paste, a rolling mat, chopsticks, and most importantly your very own leaflet with step-by-step instructions along with images to wrap your first ever sushi. The Sushi Kit is by far my favourite one of their products! Along with create-your-own kits they also sell an array of sauces and noodles. My favourite sauce, Teriyaki, is delicious on meats and vegetables. It is a mixture of naturally brewed soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. The Tempura Batter Mix includes all of the ingredients to make the perfect batter to put over chicken and even shrimp. Saitaku’s Tempura is absolutely delicious. All of Saitaku’s products are made with high quality ingredients to authentic Japanese recipes, and all products are wrapped up in a distinctive and eye catching Japanese packaging.

These products can be purchased on numerous online retailers, a list of which can be found here which currently has discounts on all of Saitaku’s products. The Sushi Kit retails for £6.99 and a 150ml bottle of the Teriyaki sauce retails for £1.29. For more information on the brand and other products visit their website here. We at The Amazing Blog thing Saitaku’s Japanese food products are great and definitely worth a try!

The Clear Skin Cookbook

With the thousands of lotions and potions on the market claiming to give you clear skin it's hard to separate the good from the bad. There's toners, cleansers, and all sorts of products claiming to clear your skin. But The Amazing Blog's going to let you in on a secret: it doesn't matter what you put on your body, but what you put in it. And the man to tell you exactly what to be putting in it is Dale Pinnock in his book The Clear Skin Cookbook. Dale's cookbooks don't just tell you what to eat, they tell you why it works and what it's going to do for you. With The Clear Skin Cookbook you get the essential information you need to be healthy inside and out, and eating the correct combination of nutrients will get you on the road to perfect skin. Author Dale Pinnock is a renowned nutritionist, chef, and health expert, and has previously released Medicinal Cookery, which gives readers insight into the more healthy foods and their effects on your body. Following the recipes in the book will help your skins healing and combat signs of ageing, from acne to eczema. The book is full of recipes from starters to desserts and even drinks! I personally love the Pasta with Spinach and Feta in Roasted Red Pepper Sauce - you don't feel like you're dieting but you know that it's healthy for you. As well as having a bunch of yummy recipes, The Clear Skin Cookbook has all the information you could ever want on how eating properly is great for your mind, body and skin! You'll be surprised how simple it is to clear up your skin just by eating the right foods.

So if you're interested in clearing up your skin, or even if you just want some great recipe ideas, pick up The Clear Skin Cookbook by Dale Pinnock!

Celtic Marches

With all the barbecues, parties and events you attend in the summer, it's always nice to mix things up. I'm sure everyone's sick of the same wines / beers / wine coolers being served wherever you go. Anyone can grab a bottle from the off license and that's all well and good, but for the more experimental drinker, The Amazing Blog has found Celtic Marches. Celtic Marches are based in Herefordshire and specialise in making unique liqueurs. And let me tell you, they're very tasty. Their two brandy based liqueurs, Bloody Furlong and Number Nine, are unlike anything you've tried - assuming you've never tried Celtic Marches. Bloody Furlong is flavoured with apple and maple, and Number Nine is flavoured with apple and blackcurrant. While they say you can drink the liqueurs neat, I prefer to mix mine, and the Celtic Marches website has recipes for delicious summer drinks. For those of you who don't want the hassle of mixing a drink, they also have a cider, Abrahall's Cider. And for the really daring drinkers amongst you, Number Nine mixed with Abrahall's is a flavour sensation. They both taste and look different to a lot of other brands on the market, and all the bottles are hand-finished in wax. They use the highest quality ingredients and you can definitely tell when you taste them.

So this summer, treat yourself and your friends to a few new tipples! Celtic Marches products are available to buy on their website.

Black Garlic

Like most 20-somethings, I am borderline hopeless in the kitchen, so I'm always on the look out for ingredients that save me a job or make things that bit more painless. And The Amazing Blog has delivered a tasty little treat for you: Black Garlic. Now don't be frightened, even though it looks like one of your kitchen experiments gone wrong, it couldn't taste any farther from it. Everyone knows popping a bit of garlic onto chicken, into a sauce or with some vegetables makes everything taste better, but if you thought that before then Black Garlic will be your new kitchen holy grail. It's not supposed to replace regular garlic, as it's a completely different flavour sensation, it's soft and velvety and adds an amazing layer of flavour to whatever you put it in. In order to make Black Garlic,  a bulb is put through a heating and moisture process for several weeks, creating the intense flavour and colour. Black Garlic has almost twice the antioxidants of regular garlic and is low in fat and is first date safe, no garlic breath here! The great thing about Black Garlic is its versatility, their website even has recipes for you to try out and modify with your new favourite ingredient. So whether you're using it for a more traditional dish, or trying a more daring approach, some Black Garlic is the perfect complement to your meal.

Black Garlic is available for £1.40 in Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco and a variety of independent food stores.

Olives Et Al

Let’s face it, all of us like to think we’re the next Delia or Nigella, but if we’re really honest, most of us need a bit of help in the kitchen. With all the ready packaged spices and meals on the market, its easy to cheat your way to the perfect dinner, and we girls at The Amazing Blog are definitely guilty of this! So we’ve found a delicious addition to any girl’s fridge,Olives Et Al’s Red Pepper and Almond Pesto.

This colourful little jar is packed with tasty ingredients, no additives or preservatives, and is suitable for all you vegetarians and vegans out there! In just a spoonful of pesto, you’ll get a flavour hit of red peppers and almonds of course, blended with the perfect mix of pine nuts, cashews, garlic, paprika, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic, all capturing the sweetness of the red pepper. This pesto is brilliant for pasta and grilled chicken – I personally love it on fish – adding a layer of Mediterranean flavour to any meal. Being around for over 18 years, Olives Et Al have a whole range of pesto's, olives, dressings and sauces, you can create natural and flavourful meals at home, without any hassle! Make sure to check their website for simple recipes!

So next time you’re cruising the supermarket for meal ideas, whether it’s a bottle of dressing or a jar of pesto, keep an eye out for Olives Et Al’s delicious range.