Wigglylittleworm's Kitchen Nightmare (Ainsley Harriott Bengali Keema Masala Dinner Kit)

Member Name: wigglylittleworm

Product:	Ainsley Harriott Bengali Keema Masala Dinner Kit
Date:	04/04/09 (372 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: the rice was lovely

Disadvantages: crap curry, disaster bread

Dinner kits have been increasingly common lately, they give people the chance to create their own meal using a mixture of fresh ingredients and adding them to the kit. I love a good curry and kept looking at the Ainsley Harriott kits when I was in the supermarket but the £3 price tag put me off. One day the Bengali Keema Masala with roti bread kit was on special offer for £2 so I decided to give it a try.

To use the kit you need to buy other ingredients namely 300g of minced lamb and a tub of natural yoghurt. My lamb cost me £2.60 for 500g and was organic and my yoghurt cost me 21p making the total cost of the meal around £5 for two.

Once you get the kit home, you use the various sachets to assemble the meal.

Step one was the easiest, tip the contents of a sachet into the yoghurt to make raita. I thought the herbs looked disgusting and would never make the yoghurt taste good but this ened up being the tastiest part of the meal.

Step two has you making the curry by adding the spice and vegetable sachets to the browned mince. The curry was very mildly spiced and even the addition of chilli flakes didn't really pep it up at all. The vegetables were a mix of peas and onions. The box told me to simmer for 15 minutes but I cooked it for a lot longer but even the extended cooking time left the vegetables with the chewy texture that you would expect to find in a pot noodle.

Step three had me making the rice. This was simple enough, just simmer for 12 minutes and the rice was delicious, delicately spiced and plentiful.

Step four had me making the roti bread. I followed the instructions to the letter by mixing, kneading and rolling it out. The bread was a total utter disaster. It was impossible to roll the dough out thinly enough without it breaking into little bits. When I tried to fry it as instructed then it jut ended up doughy and almost inedible.

I'm really disapointed with this kit. I was expecting to be able to knock up a decent curry with accompaniments but what I got was an unappetising mess of bland curry, inedible bread and nice rice. The kit means a lot of faffing around, I needed three pans and a bowl to cook the kit and my kitchen ended up in a right mess trying to make the bread. Next time I think I'll just head for the takeaway, for the same price I can get a decent curry and rice and although it's loaded with fat at least I will enjoy eating it and not have a mess to clean up afterwards.

Summary: A kitche disaster