March results: What’s in the box?

Exciting times are upon us. Did you take part in last week’s What’s in the box? recipe challenge? If you did, we bet you were able to cook up something delicious without the guidance of a recipe. Let’s see what our lucky ladies made with their five ingredients.

These were the five ingredients shipped to Candice Le Noury, Sigrid Kenmuir and Colleen Grove.

Pork chops
Potatoes
Figs
Rocket
Walnuts

What did Sigrid make?

Sigrid is our product copy writer here at Yuppiechef HQ. Being a walking encyclopedia and a culinary whizz-kid, she jumped at the chance to cook with what’s in the box? She made pork chops with Turkish carrot salad and baby potato wedges and, for dessert, roasted figs stuffed with blue cheese.

‘My fridge is always bursting with weird and wonderful ingredients but for some reason, I’d never cooked with either figs or walnuts, so this month’s box was the perfect challenge.

I’ve been very into Turkish food after a recent holiday, so I added grated carrot, Greek yoghurt and mint to the rocket and walnuts. This can be served warm or cold and is delicious both ways (yay leftovers!). The baby potatoes turned into oven roasted wedges. For a splash of colour, I also sautéed some baby gems and peppers to round everything off. The figs, however, were the pièce de résistance of the meal. Dessert is a rarity in our house but I decided these would be a special treat. A cross in the middle, a lump of blue cheese, ten minutes in the oven and a drizzle of honey later and we were enjoying a decadent dessert.

All in all, a pleasure, and I learnt something new. Roasted figs? New best dessert ever.’ Here’s the recipe for Sigrid’s tasty figs.

What did Colleen Grove make?

As it turns out Colleen Grove is the passionate foodie behind browniegirlblog. She made grilled pork chops, crisp baby potatoes with a roasted butternut, fig and blue cheese salad and for dessert, roasted figs in port and pink peppercorns. Tally ho.

‘The intense heat that we’ve been experiencing was inspiration to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen. The figs made me salivate for all things delicious and my mind raced through six different ways to prepare them in about one minute!

I marinated the chops in olive oil, Bottlegreen Lemongrass and Ginger Cordial, citrus zest, chilli, soy sauce and Liquid Smoke. While they languished in their bath I roasted butternut and also some figs (in a separate dish drizzled with a mixture of the cordial, port and pink peppercorns). I seared the chops in a hot griddle pan and finished them off briefly in the oven together with the boiled crushed baby potatoes lightly coated in melted pork lard and chopped rosemary to crisp them up. The marinade was reduced to an exotically flavoured thickish glaze and blitzed with one of the roasted figs to serve over the chops. My salad consisted of rocket, butternut, red onion, fresh figs, cremazola and walnuts, dressed with olive oil, pomegranate juice and spicy citrus balsamic reduction. I served the roasted fig dessert with vanilla ice cream adding the reduced juices. Magnifique!

Thank you Yuppiechef, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being subjected to mystery ingredients and to using them creatively!’ Check out the full recipe for Colleen’s what’s in the box dinner.

What did Candice Le Noury make?

Candice is a big fan of Yuppiechef and happens to work for KitchenAid. She’s also the lady cooking, eating and writing for The Gorgeous Gourmet. She cooked up pork chops with fig, onion relish and hasselback potatoes. Doesn’t that sound grand?

‘I’m always on the hunt for a new culinary challenge and it was such a treat opening up the March box! Figs and walnuts are a wonderful combination that can go sweet or savoury and I’m obsessed with pork and fruit. I chose to make a sticky, fruity relish to go with the chops – onions are always on hand in our kitchen and a little dried chilli from the spice jar added a delightful kick and bite to the sweetness. A fairly easy dinner idea, with quick-to-fry pork chops, this can be on your table in under 30 minutes. The idea of a malva pudding with figs, walnuts and honey also crossed my mind. It’s now been added to my to-do list…’ Here’s Candice’s full recipe for her spontaneous dinner.

A big thanks to these three cooks.

Keen to put your name into the hat for the next What’s in the box? challenge? Email [email protected] and we might just be in touch.