Foodie penpals – July 2015

Hey, hey, hey – foodie penpals is back! I am a little late with this month’s reveal, but that hasn’t stopped me eating my way through my delicious parcel. This month I was again paired with Selina from BigHomeBird (we were previously paired up in March 2014 and as you can read from that post, I was very spoiled by her), who once again prepared a thoughtful and generous parcel.

• First up was a Ritz book of afternoon tea, which shares recipes, anecdotes and the history of afternoon tea at the famous hotel. I am looking forward to trying out some of the delicious recipes from the book.
• A selection of flavoured teas, which I have been enjoying each afternoon (sadly without crustless sandwiches and cream cakes).
• Tea filters to use when making tea with leaves – I have never come across these before but they allow you to make a kind of DIY teabag which is handy if you don’t want to make a whole pot of leaf tea.
• Cupcake cases – a pretty selection of cases.
• A packet of cafetiere coffee.
• Acai berry sauce – I got my brother to try this first as he likes very spicy food, and actually the acai berry sauce only has a mild, peppery kick which is delicious. The flavour was a bit smoky, and I would  have liked to have tried it out by marinading some meat. My brother decided to literally stick his tongue into the bottle so that the contents had to become his!
• Traditional Indian breath freshener – now, I have actually come across this combination of herbs and aromatics, which are traditionally chewed in India as a natural breath freshener. Unfortunately I found it like chewing pot pourri so I won’t be sampling this one, but it does make a perfect foodie penpal present.
• Butter chicken spice pack – this was my absolute favourite – I am just a bit gutted that I can’t get the spice mix online as the mixture made us an utterly delicious curry and I really want to try it again – if anyone has a recipe for butter chicken then please let me know.

Thanks Selina for a truly excellent parcel – I hope I get the chance to return the favour some time.

I was paired up to send a parcel to Claire in Hale, who told me that she was not fussy and so I should surprise her. I sent her a bit of a random mix of European goodies, inspired by Selina’s eclectic mix:

• A selection of tea and biscuits (UK)
• Crackers for biscuits (UK)
• Meatball sauce from Ikea (Sweden)
• Mushy peas (which you soak yourself – more information here) (UK)
• Dijon mustard with chablis and morelles (France)
• Fig chutney (France)
• Italian chocolate from our recent trip to Rome (Italy)

I hope Claire enjoys her parcel.

As always, if you want to join in, speak to Carol-Anne at This is Rock Salt for more information.