TRIED AND TESTED | Marks and Spencer’s New Indian range
Photograph: M&S
How do M&S keep rolling out new ranges without us realising what old products have been ditched? They must be replacing something, right? Surely there’s not enough room for both the old and the new. The latest to hit the shelves are a new, more modern selection of Indian ready meals, from snacks to a slow cooked cuts of meat.
Obviously you’re never going to beat an authentic Indian meal, we’re off to check out the new Dishoom soon to get our fix. But sometimes we just want to cosy up on the sofa with the cats, a bottle of wine and some indulgently bad TV (Hollyoaks in case you’re wondering. Don’t judge us). This is especially comforting when we’re having weather like we are now.
Crispy pooris and tikki bites get the journey started
So last Friday night we cracked open our M&S samples and had a night in. Kicking off with Aloo Saag Tikki Bites (£2), these do exactly as you imagine – deliver a little bite of fluffy piced potato and spinach.
Alongside the Crispy Pooris With A Dip Selection (£2), these two make perfect telly nibbles, just bung them in the oven and you’re done. The Crispy Pooris With A Chicken Tikka Masala Dip (£2.50) were particularly good, the dip is served warm and worked well with the tiki bites also.
Next stop… butter chicken thali
Now I love compartments and a variation of food to stop me getting bored so the Butter Chicken Thali (£5) was perfect for me to get stuck into. Shame it doesn’t come on one of those authentic steel platters.
Final destination – lamb rogan josh
The Lamb Shoulder Rogan Josh (£7.50) takes a while to cook so you need to allow time for that, it’s well worth it though. Tender pull-apart meat in a rich tomato and onion sauce. We teamed ours with some fab super long curls of Amira rice. You can’t beat a steaming bowl of dhal, we tried the Tarka Dhal (£2) – lightly spiced and made with chana dhal and hints of cumin and coriander.
As we all know, ready meals can be laden with calories, especially rich and creamy food like this. There’s a selection of reduced fat options (30% less) for those of you that are health conscious. For us, if we’re treating ourselves to a dinner like this then we don’t worry about the calories and just work extra hard at the gym the next day. After all, ready meals aren’t meant for everyday eating and life’s too short to worry about things like that anyway.
The full range hits M&S stores in November.
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Marks and Spencer provided the above dishes, this does not affect our review in any way. We always write with complete honesty.
