My experiences of the Zaap Thai branch in York have been very good but the standard of the ready meals really impressed me, particularly given the abbreviated timeframe in which they were introduced, so their entry into the recipe box market was intriguing. The Ban’s Kitchen recipe kit boxes are each designed to offer a particular Thai dish and clock in between £19 and £26 plus shipping. I plumped for the Massaman kit and looked forward to getting cooking. The kit includes the majority of the fresh ingredients you need, though you need to add your own protein, garnishes, stock and rice. It’s noteworthy that the quantity of the dry ingredients delivered are far, far in excess of what’s needed for one meal though, which comfortably compensates for the slightly curious absence of rice.

The instructions included with the Ban’s Kitchen recipe box are durable enough to last a good few cooking sessions worth of spills and easy enough to follow without the need to extend one’s mental facilities too far. I augmented the included potato, carrot and onion with some chicken breast and after a very manageable amount of chopping, stirring, cooking and simmering I was ready to dish up and garnish with generous amounts of coriander (I’ll hear nothing against the stuff). The results lived up to the promise of enabling us to “cook the perfect Massaman curry at home” with the mild balance of sweet, salty and tangy well achieved and comfortably competing with takeaways or restaurant dishes. I was even compelled to ponce the rice into a bit of a shape to serve.

In all honesty ‘recipe kit’ is something of a misnomer here. While it includes some of the fresh ingredients needed to bring the meal to the table, the quantity of the dry ingredients will let you cook the same dish repeatedly with the addition of onions, potatoes, carrots and your choice of protein. The building blocks of curry paste, fish sauce, palm sugar and star anise will envelope many more than the included coconut milk. It’s almost more appropriate to describe this as a ‘Thai store cupboard in a box’ with a convenient recipe thrown in. I’ve made Massaman from this on more occasions than I can bring to mind now, it suiting leftover turkey particularly well, and absolutely recommend trying it for yourself if you’re missing Thai meals out at the moment.

Disclaimer: PR Sample with no charge.

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Having arranged delivery, I was a little surprised to find the Riverford recipe box arriving at five o’ clock in the morning as I was tending to Baby Fork, though thankfully the delivery driver was sensible enough to not bang at the door. A few hours later, I retrieved the box from its hiding place and found it still in perfect condition ready to get stuck into cooking later that evening. All the produce in the box was great quality and measured out appropriately. The only misstep was mine as I failed to grasp the subtlety of the part of the box labelled “Lift Here” and took rather longer than I should have to retrieve some of the ingredients.

The first recipe I tried was “Herby Whipped Wootton & Balsamic Veg” that Riverford characterised​ as “Vegetarian Simple”. The “Wootton” in question was Wootton White, a British made Feta-style cheese that the recipe directed to whip up with creme fraiche until light and fluffy. This was to be served over roasted veg and brown rice. The recipe did a good job of issuing instructions in a sensible order to maximise time efficiency, the pre-measured ingredients helping to speed things along too. There was a reasonable amount of chopping involved and as I wanted to do the dish justice, I took my time. The investment was worth it though as the finished dish was excellent. The timings on the recipe card were all spot on and the combination of summery veg roasted with basil, balsamic vinegar under rice and the whipped cheese was delicious.

The second dish I was sent to prepare was “Lebanese Spinach & Chickpeas”. This one was alleged to be a little tougher as “Vegetarian Foodie”, but I can’t say I noticed any element of the prep being noticeably more challenging. The Maftoul that I started by simmering was reminiscent of large coucous and ended up being perfect to soak up the delicately spiced chickpeas which were in turn fantastic with the simmered tomato, preserved lemon, coriander, a spice mix and spinach. This was a real hit and had great depth of flavour which hit up spice against the tahini yoghurt nicely.

I enjoyed cooking both these dishes and the results were certainly striking as I’d been encouraged by the process to make a little more effort than a usual mid week dinner. The dishes come in around £12 for each meal for two and the produce was exemplary. I’ll certainly be hanging onto the recipe cards too. This was undoubtedly a convenient way to try new dishes that I wouldn’t normally think to cook at home.

​Disclaimer: No charge was made for this delivery. Opinions are impartial.

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By the time the gang arrived I’d made sure that all the required ingredients were available along with a suitable selection of cold beers to liven up the cooking process as we tucked into the spicy crisps and started prepping. I’ve got to admit at this point to a bit of dictatorship coming out as I employed Des as my sous chef and started issuing forth commands to get the Tandori Masala chicken marinading and tomatoes prepped for roasting with chilli flakes. Next up was grating a fair bit of carrot for the salad with freshly squeezed lemon then readying the kebab masala mix with lamb mince. So far so good as Des continued to tolerate my ‘suggestions’, we didn’t make any timing mistakes and the instructions were producing accurate results. Encouraged, we moved on to getting the Bombay potatoes ready without even over boiling the potatoes before combining them with some tomatoes and the spice mix.

Thankfully now free of chopping, weighing, boiling and mixing, Des was released to actually enjoy himself while I put finishing touches on and had a bit of a tidy before settling down with the team as we waited for our feast to cook and kept an eye on the three YoaF felines resident at this house who were, oddly, very interested in the chicken earlier spotted.

After not much longer the food was all ready to go and had taken impressively little faffing so I handed plating up duties to the gang and retired to admire the results. It hadn’t taken much skill to prepare all this and the results were absolutely successful. The chicken was moist and well flavoured and and the masala kebab meat bound neatly into patties to serve with fresh coriander. The lemon sharpened grated carrot deliciously sharp and the juicy tomato spiked through with the dried chilli. My personal favourite was the bombay potato. Well balanced spice and tomato really brought the potatoes to life and made them beautifully moreish.

Rafi’s Spicebox is

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