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The shops are full of new products, all clamouring for your attention and money, but how do you know which ones are worth buying? Delia Online editor Jo Hill has tried and tested her way through the latest offerings: here are her favourites.
Loaves you’ll love
Famed for its superb Scottish meat products, Donald Russell is now offering a Speciality Bread Selection of six hand-made mini loaves, £16. Made in Germany from the finest non-GM cereals, seeds and spring water, each loaf takes three days to make, giving a wonderful depth of flavour: the selection, which arrives frozen, includes a yeast-free loaf with potato and caraway, rye bread and, my favourite, Country Seed Bread with a superb nutty roasted flavour – highly recommended.
Oats get the vote!
Staying north of the border, Nairns has been making oatcakes from finest Scottish oats, grown without insecticides, for over a century. I tested their new, award-winning Oat Bakes on some ravenous, just-out-of-school 11 year olds. The verdict? Much tastier than many ‘healthy’ snacks (cheese, right, was their favourite; other flavours are Tomato, Garlic & Basil and Lemon and Cracked Pepper). £0.49 per pack from Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Morrison's and Holland & Barratt.
Fruitful liaisons
Fresh juices from Blenheim Palace Provisions – inspired by produce grown in the walled garden there – have a refreshing edge and are far less sugary-sweet than many on the market. Preservative- and additive-free, Apple and Mango infused with ginger, Pear & Pomegranate infused with elderflower and Pineapple, Peach and Passionfruit infused with Passionflower allow the taste of the fruit to shine through. The new dessert range has the luscious home-made quality of plenty of fruit, lightly poached in its own juice for optimum flavour. Juices are £2.29 for 1 litre; desserts are £2.99 for two, both from Sainsburys.
Can’t eat wheat?
Apparently 1 in 10 people in this country has a wheat intolerance, so it’s good news that products like organic refined spelt flour from Sharpham Park, in wholegrain or refined white varieties, are more readily available. Organic, stoneground Sharpham Park spelt flour can also be used for cakes, biscuits, pies and Yorkshire pudding, making it a good choice for those – wheat intolerant or not – who want to introduce a different and healthy grain into their diet; from £2.50 for a 1kg bag.
Truly Thai
As someone who’s passionate about Thailand and its wonderful cuisine, I tend to be sceptical when manufacturers refer to their Thai sauces as ‘authentic’ but I have to eat my words. Sharwood’s new Stir-fry sauces – Kaffir Lime and Coriander, Oyster and Thai Basil and Sweet Chilli and Lemongrass – are very good indeed, paired with chicken, steak and prawns respectively, offering the balance of sweetness, spice and fragrance that makes Thai food so popular. Free from artificial colours and flavours; £1.36 per jar from leading supermarkets.
This year’s best cookery books
The Guild of Food Writers knows a good cookery book from a dud: this year’s awards went to Skye Gyngell for the wonderful A Year in my Kitchen, described by judges as ‘a truly inspirational book full of vivacious fresh flavours’; Mark Hix, for British Regional Food, a paean to the best of British traditions (recipes such as Wild Mallard with Elderberry Sauce could only originate in these shores) and Ruth Cowen’s Relish: The Extraordinary Life of Alexis Soyer, the original celebrity chef.
Wrap artists
If, like me, you struggle to find wrappings for packed lunch on a school outing and end up sending your children out with a less-than-cool carrier bag, you’ll love the Baco Rainbow range of food wrap and resealable snack bags, with their designs of hippos, crocodiles and monkeys. Older kids may prefer the plain sandwich bags with reusable stickers featuring words like ‘cool’, magic and ‘wicked’. The website’s pretty funky too, with plenty of games and downloadable goodies, plus recipes and activity ideas. From 99p from major supermarkets.
A tale of two cheeses
Doddington Dairy in Northumberland has come up trumps with two gorgeous new unpasteurised cheeses – Admiral Collingwood (named after the North East’s most celebrated seaman) and Baltic. Neither cheese would be out of place among the best fromages of France, which is where artisan cheesemakers Neill and Margaret-Ann Maxwell learnt their art, producing semi-soft cheeses that are matured for four months, then washed with ale every two weeks. Both are great with crackers, fruit, pickles and bread… From cheesemongers, delis and by mail order from the dairy.
