This week saw the husband’s second lockdown birthday.
Last year we didn’t really do anything. I mean, our place of work went into lockdown a week before the government called for it nationally. We were all changing to working from home, getting used to being in each other’s company 24/7. I think we ordered a takeaway. And… That was it.
So this year, I made a bit of a fuss. On the Friday, we attended a beer and cheese matching with Tom’s Tap – something that normally would be a faff logistically, given it’s in Crewe and we’re in Manchester.
And for dinner on Saturday, I splurged a bit. I ordered the Menu Box by Adam Reid. Yes, food from the French, in our little scruffy kitchen, eaten on our laps in front of the TV (because we don’t have room for a dining table). You could definitely call it change of scene.
So, how does it work? Pretty straight forward. Pop onto the website, pick a date – they’re all Saturdays. And wait for delivery the Friday before.
In truth, you could have it on a Friday, but we had cheese planned, so we stuck to the plan.
It arrives hand delivered and well packaged – lots of eco friendly packaging in amongst the bits of plastic (it’s food, it’s to be expected, and most will be reused by us), with clear instructions. In this case, everything except the orange butter was to go into the fridge. The latter was to go into the freezer. The duck (our main) was to be removed from the fridge a couple of hours prior to cooking so it could come up to room temperature.
Fast forward to Saturday, I popped my pinny on, and got stuck in.
Pollen bakery ‘French’ malt bread with beef butter to nibble on. Scallops with hazelnut butter as our starter.
For our main, bean cassoulet, with tender duck breast and a herb crumb.
For dessert, upside down cake, with clotted cream, caramel sauce, and orange butter.
Verdicts? The food was fabulous. From the Marmite-y butter and rich chewy bread, through the sweet scallops with crisp asparagus, to duck more tender than I’d ever hope to cook at home. And that pudding was a delight – it was so nice not to see a chocolate dessert – I love chocolate, but as a dessert it’s heavy and rich and, too much. This was intensely sweet, with the richness of the cream, but the sharpness of the butter and pineapple cutting through.
Even better, it was really easy to do. Some kits are involved and the instructions are… A challenge even for an experienced cook like me. But these were easy peasy, everything was done, it was just pulling it together.
If I have any qualm it would be plating. Maybe Elite Bistros have spoilt me with their Instagram videos, but I could only hope the plating was vaguely something similar to what they’d do in house.
But, I think I did OK. Didn’t I?