Celebrate Mother’s Day with UCOOK!

Celebrate Mother’s Day with UCOOK.

We often hear that the way to a man’s heart is his stomach. This year I think that this old adage can be tweaked. After all what better way is there to spoil mom than with a fancy 5-star lunch. Made by you.

Sounds daunting, doesn’t it! But what if I tell you that there is a way that you can serve Liam Tomlin’s (the creative mind behind the wildly popular Chef’s Warehouse and Thali restaurants) masterpieces in the comfort of your own home.

Well, you can. Have you ever heard of UCOOK?

ABOUT UCOOK

UCOOK came about in 2014 when two friends, David Torr and Chris Verster Cohen, noticed a gap in the market for convenient, healthy dinner solutions. After officially launching the business in 2015, they were quickly joined by a few friends and proceeded to operate the young start-up out of a garage in Cape Town, packing each box themselves.
From 24 boxes in their first delivery round to tens of thousands in 2018, a warehouse space in Joburg and Cape Town, and now a team of 50, UCOOK has established itself as South Africa’s favourite dinner kit service in just 3 years.

The company has stayed true to its principles of sustainable and ethically sourced ingredients and fully supports the idea that good food makes a big difference in people’s’ lives.

UCOOK has partnered with Liam Tomlin for Mother’s Day this year.

Could there be a better combo? ????

Tomlin has worked closely with UCOOK to identify popular tastes and rework recipes from his renowned tasting menus to create a spectacular 3-course lunch exclusively for the Mother’s Day box. “I wanted to keep the dishes very simple,” said Liam “so that people can reproduce them at home.”

Everyone has been talking about UCOOK recently so when I was approached to collaborate with the brand, I said yes immediately!

Now I think it is important to say that UCOOK’s packaging for the ingredients is top notch. Everything is labelled and given in the correct quantity you would need for the recipes.

To be honest, when I first glanced through the recipes I got a bit nervous. It seemed very difficult and time-consuming. Nobody wants to spend the entire day in the kitchen on Mother’s Day, right? The good thing about Chef Liam Tomlin’s dishes is that many of the steps can be done the day before Mother’s Day.

So, what’s in the Mother’s Day box?

Your choice of starter:

RACLETTE
with a selection of charcuterie

SWEET CORN & BASIL SOUP
with guacamole and pitas

MISO SALMON
with pickled cucumber

Your choice of a main:

MUSHROOM RISOTTO
with porcini & Parmesan

ROAST CHICKEN
with golden potatoes & a simple fresh herb salad

SEARED LAMB RUMP STEAK
Served with mango, tomato & cashew nut couscous

Dessert:

LEMON POSSET
with berry coulis & pomegranates

Beverages:

Warwick First Lady Sauvignon Blanc
Warwick First Lady Cabernet Sauvignon
Warwick Chardonnay Methode Cap Classique

My experience:

After procrastinating for a few hours, I decided to tackle the first course: The Miso Salmon.

I was really looking forward to this dish because the flavour combos are one of my favourites and everyone at home loves salmon. The Miso Salmon seemed complicated on paper, but it was actually very easy to make, and it didn’t disappoint. This was my favourite dish of them all.

Our main course was the roast chicken which was a much simpler recipe to recreate than the starter. This, however, wasn’t my favourite flavour combo.

It is important to make sure you get the chicken skin crispy and not to overcook the chicken.
I think that I ended up putting too much lemon juice in the marinade which made the entire chicken taste sour. I know, lesson learned.

Now dessert is always the first thing that I look for when I read through a restaurant menu. When I read through the Lemon Posset recipe, I knew it would be easy to make but getting the flavours right was extremely important.

A lemon dessert is not everyone’s cup of tea, but the berry coulis compliments the posset so well with bits of pomegranate that the dessert isn’t as sour as you would think it would be.

Overall my experience with UCOOK has left me craving for some more… and I definitely think that you should give them a try!

The UCOOK Mother’s Day boxes are available for any family size – portions for 4, 6 or 8 people. The cost per person is approximately R315 inclusive of VAT. Each box comes with a three-course meal and Warwick Wine. It is available to order until 3rd May 2018. Visit www.ucook.co.za for more information.

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