Gourmet Meals at home : Chefkraft, review and a giveaway

Most of us would love the experience of a great meal alongside the comfort of our own home, whether it is while entertaining friends or a romantic dinner for two or a couple of teens that want to party at home. It is a pleasure to whip up gourmet stuff, but more often than not home cooks are worried, which recipes from the hundreds of versions  available online would work perfectly, who would do all the chopping and where do I get my ingredients from, if I don’t get one what can be a good substitute. And after spending time figuring all of that, we reach the store to buy stuff and comes the next problem, I need 1 tsp of sumac and the smallest available is 100 gms pack, that takes the budget up the wall plus there is concern for wastage. For a home-cook, all this can be very overwhelming and hence the wish of cooking up good food in a busy life like ours takes a back seat. We end up going out for dinner 8/10 times we are meeting people and the rest of the two times well we order in.

Chefkrat offers a solution to these problems in an efficient and creative way. It delivers to at your footsteps meal kits. Kits for which recipes have been designed and tested by chef’s (one of them being Chef Xerxes of Red Fork, one of my favorite places to eat in Bangalore currently). So pain point number one solved, which recipes to use.

The kit which comes in cardboard box (which is recycled BTW, the delivery person will ask you to empty and return it back) contains the following

1. Recipe & Instruction Card
2. Pre prepared ingredients
3. Ice pack to keep everything fresh

Recipe & Instruction Card : The recipe and instruction card was well designed and clear, instructions of what to add when, how long to cook the food at every stage and when to stop, what to do if I don’t want to cook the stuff as soon as I receive it very very clear.  I feel a person whose skill level is at a very basic in the kitchen should also be able to execute the instructions

Pre-prepped ingredients : I will be honest, one of my biggest concern with chefkfraft when I was requested to do the review was the fact that will the chopped ingredients still be fresh when I cook with them. I am very hands on kitchen person, I chop while I cook and I like my stuff to be fresh and I am sometimes obsessively finicky about the freshness of chicken and other meats. But I was presently surprised with the freshness of everything. Clean and fresh, the ingredients didn’t disappoint infact that the quality of most ingredients was better than you will get what you will get in your supermarkets including chicken, I guess the ice pack added does it job well and is a very well though of addition.

We had ordered two dishes that day – Middle Eastern Chicken with Couscous, a dish with dry fruits and olives served with couscous it was very very easy to execute and was one of the best middle eastern dish I have had in Bangalore. The balance of sweet and spice was bang on and everyone at home loved it specially O, who forbid us to eat anymore of it after one helping. Kept the chicken in the fridge to eat next day (still tasted great the next day BTW).

The second dish we ordered was Zucchini boats and pumpkin soup, frankly this was a dish ordered by O, since he was sitting next to me when I was selecting and was fascinated by the look and the name of the dish. It was also a dish that was mostly executed by him, regular readers of this blog know that he loves cooking and cooks a lot with me in the kitchen.  The kit came with everything but Zucchini chopped but the instructions on what to do with it very clear and with me and O had a good time putting it together. Special mention for the delicious pumpkin soup which came ready along with the kit. A little mention about the quantities is required here, the kit said Serves 2-3 and I think it certainly means generous helpings.

All in all my experience was great and I am sure I will be using them a lot more in the coming time. It’s clearly a boon for those party days when we want to cook up something fancy without too much effort or even those weekday dinners for busy days which should end on good, wholesome food.

And I have more good news for you, the folks have chefkraft have been generous enough to do a giveaway for the readers of the blog. We are giving away TWO meal kits and TWO of their special “Brownie in a mug” (damn, I want that for myself too ;)). All you have to do is the following

1. Like ChefKraft page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/chefkraftindia) and follow them on twitter (https://twitter.com/chefkraftindia)
2. Like Sin-A-Mon on FB (https://www.facebook.com/sinamontales) and follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/monikamanchanda)
3. Leave a comment here, or on twitter tagging us both or on FB post telling us what is that you will like to see more of from ChefKfraft in future
4. The winner will be chosen by a lucky dip done by the CheftKraft folks and you can increase the number of entries in the dip by tweeting or sharing this post on FB/twitter everyday. Just tag us when you do so that we can keep a track
5. The contest is open till 4th March and the winners will be announced on 9th March.
6. The contest is open only for Bangalore readers since Chefkfrat is operating in only bangalore region currently

So get rolling folks, there is a lot to win

Website: Chefkraft.com

Facebook: Fb.com/chefkraftindia

Twitter: @chefkraftindia

Instagram: @chefkraftindia