Gordon Rhodes’ Spice Rubs, Crumbs, Stuffings and Sauces.
Last year I discovered the company Gordon Rhodes and their delicious range of spice rubs, crumbs, cooking sauces and stuffings when at the BBC Good Food Show in Harrogate. I remember buying three of their cooking sauces: a chilli con carne one, another one for pulled pork and a curry one. All turned into mouthwatering one-pot meals which my family loved. I enjoyed them so much that I had to buy more and was so pleased to find a couple of my local farm shops stock their products.
Last Christmas I tried out Gordon Rhodes’ bread sauce mix and some stuffing. It was a quiet Christmas with just the four of us and I didn’t want to be making everything from scratch. I felt as if these products helped me to cut corners without compromising on quality and taste.
I follow Gordon Rhodes on Twitter and often tweet about how I enjoy using their products in my cooking. They had asked their followers to post photos of a dish they had created using one of their products as an ingredient in a Christmas leftover dish. They would choose which dish they liked best and the winner would get a hamper of their complete range of products. What a fantastic prize that would be. Two days after Christmas and we had my sister in law to visit. I didn’t want to just serve her slices of leftover turkey and ham so I thought of a way I could turn my leftovers into something a bit more special. I love baking pies and had some leftover shortcrust pastry in the freezer, some turkey and ham, some veg, the Gordon Rhodes stuffing and bread sauce that was leftover. I had the idea that the bread sauce would act as a thickener for a sauce in the pie along with a bit of stock.
Here is a picture of my Leftover Turkey and Ham Pie.Here is the remains of the Turkey and Ham Pie, showing the Gordon Rhodes’ bread sauce which had turned into a delicious, creamy sauce for the pie.
I was over the moon when Gordon Rhodes said that they liked my idea of using the bread sauce as a thickener in the pie and that I had won the hamper! I couldn’t believe it as I knew how much fun I would have creating dishes I had not made before with the products I had not seen before in their range.
A few days later my wonderful parcel arrived. It came beautifully packaged in a cardboard hamper which I’ve kept in my cupboard to use again.
My fantastic hamper containing the entire range of Gordon Rhodes products: 5 cooking sauces, a bread sauce, five different stuffings, two of which are gluten free and their entire range of herb and spice rubs and crumb coats.The handwritten note inside my hamper. Thankyou and yes we most definitely did enjoy our prize!My hamper also contained some very useful recipe leaflets and a brochure showing the entire range. There are also some more recipe suggestion on Gordon Rhodes’ website.I love Southern Fried Chicken and was really excited to try and create my own, healthier version baked in the oven instead of deep fried with this Cajun spice mix.The other two spice mixes I’d not tried before was the Easy Crumb Easy Go Garlic and Herb mix and the Hazy Lazy Summer Citrus and Herb Sprinkle. They would both go down well coating on chicken for my family.I have really enjoyed using Gordon Rhodes’ sauces. They help me out no end, especially during the winter months if I am out teaching all day. I put one of the sauces on with the meat and vegetables in my slow cooker in the morning and when I come home I am greeted with a mouthwatering dish like this. My family love it when I make chicken curry.I made “Inside Out Chicken Kiev” which was one of the recipe suggestions on one of the leaflets in the hamper. I coated chicken breasts with olive oil and then dipped the breasts in some of the garlic and herb coating.The “Inside Out Chicken Kiev” was a massive hit with my family. Even my fussy eater son cleaned his plate!My prize hamper has helped me out over several Sunday roasts recently. For two weeks running we had a beautiful roast chicken served with one half of the bread sauce mix and one of the stuffing mixes. The following week we had the remainder of the bread sauce and another packet of stuffing. The stuffing worked well either stuffed in the bird’s cavity or served separately in another dish.Hugely popular in our house at the moment- pulled pork. I love cooking it in my slow cooker and serving it with either bread rolls, coleslaw and pickles or with jacket potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Either way there are clean plates in our house.Pulled Pork, one of my favourite foods at the moment. It can have honey added to the mix. I don’t bother, I just leave it as it is.We love chilli con carne in our house. It gets served with boiled rice but recently I have started serving it in baked tortilla baskets sprinkled with grated cheese, salsa and a dollop of creme fraiche on top. The Gordon Rhodes sauce is another perfect mix to pop in the slow cooker on a busy morning.Here is the eagerly awaited Southern Fried Chicken which tasted fabulous with wedges and veg.The Southern/ Cajun spice mix also turned out to make gorgeous spicy potato wedges one night.
About a month later after getting my prize I still have one packet of stuffing and three of the spice mixes yet to try out. It will be interesting to see what I can come up with.
SmartCookieSam 