Sunday Selection: Easy waffles, Lavazza Prontissimo Instant Coffee and Lee Kum Kee XO Sauce

Lee Kum Kee XO Sauce

If you have never had XO, head to your nearest oriental supermarket and get some. This is the most amazing condiment made with high end ingredients like dried shrimp, dried scallops, dried fish and cooked with garlic, onions and chillies. That’s how it got its name XO sauce, an elevated chilli oil made into a premium product.

Lee Kum Kee were the first people to make this commercial in Hong Kong. Most Cantonese restaurants make their own is often served as a condiment to certain dishes and sometimes dim sum too. (Tip: if you taste one in a restaurant that you like, try and get a bottle off them.) It is quite versatile and can be used in cooking too. The most popular dishes are fried udon with seafood in XO sauce or in some dim sum places, stir-fried carrot cake in XO sauce.

It’s taste like chilli oil with bits. There is much more umami to this sauce than a regular chilli oil with the addition of the seafood and other ingredients. I always have a jar available and will liberally use it in bowls of noodles, on top of any other dishes that need a little extra kick. Be warned, it’s addictive.

Available in Oriental Supermarkets and some larger Tesco stores.

Lavazza Prontissimo

Lavazza is one of the most prolific brands of coffee in London cafes and restaurants. They are normally coffee beans, ground to order when you order that potent espresso made in a top of the range coffee machine. Since we can’t always get to one of these cafes, this is the next best thing, Lavazza Prontissimo.

It is their new range of instant coffees and comes in two strengths, Intenso and Medio. I taste tested them for you and found the coffee to be quite close to that made from beans. Of course this was made into an Americano style, drunk black with a bit of sugar. I can’t make any comment into making this into an intense espresso but you can try. I think this will make an excellent ice coffee too, just add ice.

It is certainly in a whole different league than other instant coffees I have tried. Must send some to my mum, she loves the darker intense coffees made with a spoonful of condensed milk.

Birds Eye Waffles

One of my favourite weekend lazy breakfast is waffles and having some of these Birds Eye frozen waffles in the freezer is so convenient. There is something quite comforting on a weekend morning, roll out of bed, make a hot drink, turn on the tele and pop some of these Birds Eye waffles in the toaster. They are meant to take 3 minutes but I like them a bit crisp so I keep them in there for about 5. These waffles taste like how I remember them from years ago. I like to have them with some salted butter and drenched in maple syrup or honey. Here I jazzed it up a bit with some blueberries, made by heating some frozen blueberries with a bit of honey.

EatCookExplore was gifted these products.