TRIED AND TESTED | Olia Hercules Recipe Kits For Marley Spoon
Marley Spoon has teamed up with Olia Hercules this June – The Observer’s Rising Star of 2015 and author of celebrated cookbook, Mamushka. Olia combines her Ukrainian heritage with Cypriot, Italian, Moldovan, Laos and Caucasian influences. Such an interesting sounding mix, we just had to try, we’ve (well, I) have been pretty lazy in the kitchen recently, not even enough time to look up recipes, let alone cook them.
Another strong performance from Hercules. Photograph: Marley Spoon
Our Tender Lamb Steaks with Mint Ajika Grilled Potatoes recipe kit was delivered by good old DPD overnight and arrived bright and early the next morning. I made the terrible mistake of trusting Ade to unpack the goods and put them in the fridge. Later that evening, I went into the kitchen to take the lamb out of the fridge to let it to get to room temperature before I cooked it.
All fresh and ready to go…
I couldn’t find the lamb. I had two bags full of all the other ingredients but no lamb to be found. Surely Marley Spoon wouldn’t have forgotten the most important ingredient of all? ‘I can’t find the lamb!’ I yelled at Ade. ‘Oh no! Maybe it was wrapped up in that bag of wool packaging that I threw away’ he said.
He had really thrown it away. I had the unfortunate task of delving into the wheelie bin to rescue the poor lamb. By some miracle, it was still cold, the wool it was encased in obviously did a fantastic job. Had it been out all day the following day it would have been a different story – it was a scorcher, I dread to think what I would have found in that bin.
So, drama over, I got to work. Ade was tied up writing the blog so all the hard work was down to me and it was hard word. I’m a one-pot-throw-it-all-in kind of girl, this Olia Hercules dish involved far too much chopping for my liking. For anyone else, it’s probably just normal but I am lazy.
Meat and three veg (and a fruit)
After what it has been through, we decided to err on the side of caution when cooking the meat and heated it through more than we’d have liked. It managed to retain tenderness and tasted absolutely delicious, as were the Ajika spuds.
Ajika is so easy to make, just blitz up some mint, fresh chilli, garlic, a splash of olive oil and seasoning and voila! A great dish, very summery and satisfying at the same time, something so very different yet amazingly easy, we might even cook it again, with lamb that hasn’t been in the bin next time…
The recipes are available to order online until 24th June. Dishes start at £4.35 per portion with free delivery available nationwide.
Marley Spoon provided our recipe kit, this does not affect our review in any way. We always write with complete honesty.
