The ChileFoundry » Tesco

Levi Roots – Hot Chilli Beef Pasty

Hot Juan — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 09:48:15 +0000

Levi Roots products have waved between excellent and disappointing (Loved the original sauce and Domino Pizza), so when I saw this in Tesco’s I had to pop it in the basket and give it a try, the Pasty has gone a long way since starting as a Cornish miners lunch, could this have any chance of being good!

Levi Roots - Hot Chilli Beef Pasty

The packet is bright in the now very recognisable Levi Roots branding, inside the pasty looked OK and smells mildly of the Reggae Reggae Sauce, as you can see from the photograph it is not badly packed with the filling. A good Pasty is not just meat, but contains some vegetables, traditionally it is a complete meal in a pastry case containing, beef, onion, potato and swede, this one is just missing the swede, but otherwise for a mass produced product the texture of the filling is not bad.

If you do get to visit the South West of England and Cornwall in particular, and are lucky enough to get a good pasty, and that is not always certainty, then the Pasty can be truly excellent culinary delight that should not be missed, nice real pieces of real meat and the veg slow cooked for flavour but not cooked to a mush, the ingredients must still retain its identity.

While this Pasty is not in the excellent class, it made a very good lunch, the flavour was defiantly of Beef and Reggae Reggae Sauce, you could also taste the potato, but sadly not the added Scotch bonnets, the pastry was a little soggy, but it has been stored in a fridge in a plastic sleeve since cooking and is not fresh from the bakers oven.

Ingredients: Minced Beef (21%), Wheatflour, Vegetable Oil, Potato, Reggae Reggae Sauce (6%), Red Peppers, Water, Onion, Cornflour, Egg, Beef Stock, Reggae Raggae Seasoning, Salt, Scotch Bonnets Chilli Peppers, Garlic Puree, Black Pepper, Milk, Thyme.
(We have not included the lists of ingredients for the Reggae Reggae Sauce and Reggae Raggae Seasoning that are listed on the packet….)

I have to admit to being quite happy with this Pasty, for a convince food it ticked a lot of the boxes, it was a cheap lunch at just £1.79, it did taste of beef, the Reggae Reggae Sauce flavour is there and while it could always have been hotter, I enjoyed it straight from the packet, I will buy another and give it a bake in the oven, I never like using the microwave on pastry as it makes it go even more soggy.

Note: the picture on the front of the packet, does look a lot better than the contents, and as I nerd, I did notice what looks like a piece of carrot, or could it be that missing swede poking out of the filling..

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Tesco’s – Mexican Style Chilli Baked Beans

Martin 'Scooby' Arnold — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:22:52 +0000

Beans beans good for your heart, the more you eat the more you……….. I think we’ll leave it there don’t you?

Tesco Mexican Style Chilli Baked Beans

First day back to work after Christmas off, I pop into Tesco to grab some lunch and I stumble across a tin of Mexican style Chilli baked beans. Bright red tin with darker center piece with the name in burnt orange/sunset text with flames. Caught my eye so that’s a good start. Nothing out of the ordinary for Tesco packing with the usual dates and ingredients ect.

Ingredients: Haricot beans (53%), Tomato puree (26%), Water, Sugar, Glucose-Fructose syrup, Modified maize starch, Salt, Chipotle Chilli (0.2%), Onion extract, Paprika extract, Maltodextrin, Flavouring.

Typical ingredients for a large production line. Cracking open the tin for a sniff and all I get is baked beans. Not a slight difference to the normal beans, not a good start in my eyes. But I guess the main are I’m interested in is the flavour so lets do this.

Ever so slightly BBQ/smokey taste, not very strong but just about noticeable with yet again just a typical baked bean flavour. The heat is incredibly low, barely noticeable. My wife had a spoonful and commented how mild they were and she thinks a Korma is hot. Need I say more? I had half the tin before I started to get any type of heat to come of them. Not the most exciting tin of beans I’ve ever had. A lot of tarting up of the packaging of a normal tin of beans but pretty much the same beans inside.

Tesco what are you doing? Please don’t make anything chilli related again unless your going to make it right. I believe this is why this county is so high up there in the chilli stakes these days, companies dedicating all their efforts into purely chilli related products to make up for the utter rubbish that comes out of mainstream productions such as the above mentioned company. My personal opinion, stick to normal beans, cheaper and taste nearly the same. Although the packaging may be a bit more boring.

Can be found at Tesco for 49p for a 220g tin.

Until next time guys remember, if it burns going in, it will burn coming out.

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Walkers Sensations – Mexican Fiery Sweet Chipotle Crisps

Hot Juan — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:42:53 +0000

Chipotle flavour has now gone main stream. Many many years ago we produced our own “Hot Juan’s Smokey Chipotle Crisps”, they tasted great, but we could never get the volumes high enough to make money doing it. Now Walkers has produced a packet of crisps using Chipotle, let hope this is the start of something big?

Walkers Sensations Mexican Fiery Sweet Chipotle Crisps

For anyone reading this who does not know what a Chipotle Chilli is, they are Jalapeños that have been ripen’d until they are red and then smoked and dried.

They come in a big 150g pack, on opening there is a mild smell of chipotle, but not a lot. The crisps are not evenly coated, and the initial taste is best described as sweet and lightly smoked, with a mild hint of warmth. The flavour is very pleasant, and easy to sit back on the sofa and snack on.

Walkers have not done what many crisp/snack makers seem to do and make over bold claims for the heat of their product, this is mild (heat) but tasty snack, that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Ingredients: Potatoes, Sunflower Oil (26%), Mexican Fiery Sweet Chipotle Seasoning ( Sugar, Whey Powder, Flavourings, Dried Garlic, Dried Onion, Leek Oil, Red Pepper, Parsley, Spice Extracts [Chipotle Chilli, Paprika, Coriander, Cumin, Cinnamon], Colour [Paprika Extract] Smoke Flavouring) Salt, Firming Agent (Calcium Chloride).

The crisps are good and crunchy, these make a great little snack, I don’t think they will ever get near toppling by favourites Nando’s Peri Peri Crisps and Blairs Death Rain Habanero Crisps from the top of my list snacks.

This packet was on offer in Tesco’s for just 87p, that cheap for any 150g bag, I am sure that was a limited time offer, but well worth picking up a bag and letting us know what you think.

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ChileFoundry Newsletter – What happened in July 2011

Hot Juan — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:40:34 +0000

New blood joins the team

This month we put out a call for some new contributors to help with stories and articles, many thank to all of you who have sent in articles, we will be running them over the next few weeks, two have already been published and we would like to welcome Patrick Garratt and Marty Greenwell to our team.

Next weekend is the West Dean Chilli Fiesta, an event not to be missed, 20,000+ people, 120+ stalls over 3 days. Darth Naga will be there making Videos with Mrs Naga all weekend, while I will be there on the Friday, if you see us please do introduce your selves, somone must read this Magazine/Newsletter??

News & Info

Reviews

Recipes

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This Newsletter is sponsored by Hot-Headz

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The Dormen Chilli and Lime Cashews

Hot Juan — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:40:54 +0000

The Dormen Food Company started life in 1985 as a specialist roasted snacks company supplying Hotels across Europe Including such notables as The Ritz, The Dorchester, Claridges and The Sheraton, In 1996 they started supplying the retail market targeting fine wine merchants like Berry, Bros & Rudd, Fortnum & Mason and Paxford & Whitfield. Now you can find them in your local supermarket, this packet came from Tesco’s.

The Dormen Chilli & Lime Cashew

When you look at roasted nut products, especially at the quality end of the market, you are looking for an even coating of the flavour, with few if any broken nuts, and all of an even size. Well on all these counts this packet scores very well, the beautifully done with each nut being coated, there are very few small pieces of broken nut, and in fact most of the nuts have not even split in two.

Ingredients: Cashews (86%), Vegetable Oil, Chilli & Lime Seasoning (Salt, Sugar, Latose, Chilli Powder, Onion Powder, Malt Vinegar Powder, Preservative: Citric Acid, Ground Spice, Garlic Powder, Yeast Extract Powder, Natural Flavourings, Colour: Paprika, Lemon Powder, Spice Extracts.

The flavour on these cashews is delicious, unlike many of the extreme nuts we have seen of late, these are not going to set you mouth on fire, but with such a high quality cashew, you don’t want to hide their natural flavour. The flavouring is awesome, it provides a good balance of heat and chilli flavour with some of the lime tang coming through, while you still know these are some classy cashews.

At £1.69 for a 90g pack cashews are never cheap, but these are a seriously high quality product and make a great snack with a nice cold beer.

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Tesco to stock Bhut Jolokia

Hot Juan — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:09:02 +0000

Bhut Jolokia in Tesco soon

In the next few days Tesco will be selling one of the worlds hottest chillies the Bhut Jolokia (also know as the Naga Jolokia) rates at up to 1,001,304 SHU. The Chillies are being grown for Tesco by Salatore Genovese in his greenhouses in Blunham, Bedfordhire. Amazingly he can produce up to 150,000 chillies per day.

The Bhut Jolokia will be sold in 15g sachets with approx three pods in each for 90p.

Tesco also sells the almost as hot Dorset Naga as well as Scotch Bonnet.

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Reggae Reggae Crisps coming soon to Tesco’s

Hot Juan — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:08:22 +0000

Levi Roots Crisps - Coming Soon to Tesco

After Reggae Reggae sauce, Ketchup, relish, Cookings sauces, Pizza and Cookbooks, we are about to get Reggae Reggae Crisps.

They will be coming to a local Tesco’s store later this month, two flavors are planned, Reggae Reggae and Caribbean Chilli Beef, both in 150g bags at £1.79 a pack.

Let hope this are not as big a disappointment as the Pringles extreme range, what ever happens we will be reviewing them as soon as we can.

Source: The Grocer

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Nando’s Extra Extra Hot Peri-Peri Seasoning Rub

Hot Juan — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 11:17:53 +0000

“Do yourself a flavour when grilling, roasting or BBQing”

Nando’s Extra Extra Hot Peri-Peri Seasoning Rub

I found this in my local supermarket (Tesco’s) and as it said Extra Extra Hot, we had to give it a try, I used this to make a kind of fiestas’, we sliced up some turkey breast steaks and coated it with the rub.

The rub comes in a 25g sachet and looked enough for what we were doing, we then sliced up a couple of onions and a pepper, and a few mushrooms ( wife loves mushrooms), we fried the meat in a large pan and then added the other ingredients.

Ingredients: Sugar, Salt, Spices (African Bird’s Eye Chilli [Peri-Peri Chilli] [4%], Black Pepper, Chillies, Cayenne Pepper, Paprika, Nutmeg) (17.8%), Dehydrated Vegetables (Onion, Garlic [5%]), Vegatable Oil, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid, Sodium Acetate), Herbs (Parsley)[3.7%], Spice Extracts, Anti-caking Agent (Silicone Dioxide), Lemon Zest, Mustard Powder.

It is not hard to tell this is a Nando’s product, there is a definite tang of Lemon, and while it gave a little bit of heat, the kids enjoyed it as well with out problem. The flavour of excellent even with sugar and salt being at the top of the ingredients list it did not seem over sweet or salty, but I may add a few hotter chilli flakes to it next time if I was just for the adults.

You can find out more about Nando’s product at www.nandos.co.uk

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Kettle Ridge Crisps – Spicy Chilli

Hot Juan — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:46:20 +0000

Kettle Ridge Crisps - Spicy Chilli

These are deeply ridged crisps, come in a large 150g purple pack and are described as “Spicy Chilli”, the packaging promotes the fact they are free from No MSG, artificial flavours and colours.

On opening the packet you can see that they a good coating of the flavouring, ridge crisps are designed to be crunchy, and these don’t fall short on the crunch front, the flavour is very pleasant, mildly warm, they are not quite sweet chilli flavour, but it is not far off, think Sweet Chilli with a twist of Thai coconut milk..

Ingredients: Selected Potatoes, Sunflower Oil, Spicy Chilli Seasoning ( Sugar, Natural Flavouring (Contains Wheat, Barley and Soya), Dried Garlic, Dried Onion, Dried Tomato, Sea Salt, Ground Cayenne, Coconut Milk Powder (Coconut, Tapioca Maltodextrin, Milk Protein), Yeast Extract, Dried Red Pepper, Dried Parsley, Chilli Powder (Ground Chilli, Ground Cumin, Salt, Dried Oregano, Dried Garlic), Ground Coriander, Ground Star Anise, Paprika Extract, Chilli Extract, Capsicum Extract.

Unlike the Nando’s Peri-Peri and Blair’s Death Rain Crisps they are not a real hot snack, but they are nice snack all the same.

Stock at the moment by Tesco and Waitrose, you can get more information on kettle crisps at www.kettlechips.co.uk

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Tiger Tiger Premium Wasabi Sauce

Mrs Naga — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:54:57 +0000

Tiger Tiger Wasabi Sauce

Hot Juan gave me this sauce when Darth Naga and I took over his house for a week or so. It has taken me all this while to locate this bottle again and crack open its delightfully green glowing box.

Tiger Tiger as a brand launched themselves in 1998, after working alongisde local chefs in India, China and Asia to bring delicious traditional flavours of the far east this way. With over 30 years experience and an online plethora of noodles, sauces, fruits and vegetables in their very wide range of products, their quality speaks for itself.

Ingredients: Sweetener Sorbitol (E420), Water, Vinegar, Salt, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Wasabi (7%), Mustard (6%), Horseradish (6%), Citric Acid, Stabilizer (E415), Tumeric, Natural Wasabi Flavour, Natural Colour (E141).

Inside this very detailed box contains a 62g tri-sided bottle with a little red cap. A beautiful chartreuse (bright green colour) with a smooth and relatively thin consistency; ideal for a dippling sauce. The immediate aroma is horseradish with a hint of mustard in the background. There is also a subtle sweet vinegarette scent.

I took a swig of the bottle (how ladylike!) and firstly tasted sweetness. The sweeneners and sugar in this sauce are very strong. Saddled alongside the vinegar, it makes a very interesting sensation on the tongue; sour AND sweet at the same time. The sweetness however lasts long after the vinegar has gone. With the vinegar hit, the wasabi doesn’t so much touch the tongue as assault the nostrils. I proceeded to get something Darth and I call ‘Wasabi nose’ (usually when he eats a whole handful of wasabi peanuts, or a whole dollop of wasabi on sashimi). The burning in the back of the nose is shortlived but enjoyable and allows you to appreciate the sweetness of the sauce. These three flavours work well together, however the sweetness is a little too strong for my tastes. I have to keep reminding myself that this sauce is a Wasabi SAUCE and not a paste. I prefer to have a much stronger flavour of wasabi. For those that would like to try wasabi in much smaller quantities, or get a subtle flavour, then this is an ideal sauce for you.

The bottle suggests that this sauce can be used not only on Sashimi (raw fish) but on all kinds of meats in any cuisine. I feel that it would work well in any sushi, salad, maybe with chips. But in traditional English cuisine it is perhaps not the best companion for bangers and mash or a Sunday roast.

This Tiger Tiger Premium Wasabi Sauce is available at Tesco for £2.49 and Asda for £1.87.

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