Dinner Party - Food By Donald Russell

Salmon En Croute from Donald Russell, photo by Danny McCubbin

I have been doing supper clubs for a few years now for perfect strangers. Some I have become great friends with and some return every now and again and some I may never see again. I really felt like doing a dinner party, not a supper club  but a dinner party like the ones I used to do and join in on some of the fun. I didn't want to spend the whole night in the kitchen but actually be with my friends. So I invited 20 friends over for dinner. Little did they know, I didn't actually cook anything because Donald Russell sent me all the food.

I went to visit Donald Russell a few months ago in Aberdeen and met Stefan Kolsh, Head Chef of Donald Russell's  ready meals and was lucky enough to taste the entire collection with him. He discussed about his painstaking experiments to keep the food fresh, how things react when frozen and defrosted and how ingredients change after a certain time and how he used the best and the right ingredients to make everything ultra delicious!

Canape selection

sausage rolls

I ordered my favourite things, and they sent me three huge boxes of food, all I needed to do was to put them in the oven to heat up. Genius! Of course, all of my friends deserve more than just ready meals but these aren't no ordinary ready meals, they are Donald Russell ready meals and we got a range from sausage rolls, salmon en croute, beef wellington, lasagne to a selection of my favourite curries! All tasting incredibly homemade. I saw them more as a catering service for my party.

We ended up having a great time over dinner, which was the most important thing for me. The whole purpose of this was so that I can take a rest from cooking and enjoy food with my guests.

photo by Donald Russell

Donald Russell sends everything frozen, (packed beautifully), so you must give yourself some time to defrost some of the products. All the instructions are clear on the labels. We all favourited everything although some friends were suspicious that I could bake so well (I can't). They all thought the meat in the beef wellington was incredible, there is no doubt about the quality of the meat at Donald Russell. The Queen orders from them!

The meal was complimentary, kindly supplied by Donald Russell. If I were to have another one of these dinner parties where I don't want to cook, I am highly likely to reorder the sausage rolls, (great as a canape), the beef wellington, lasagne and all of the curries (even to have as meals for one in front of Eastenders). The cheesecake selection too! Highly recommended!

You can order online here
www.donaldrussell.com
http://www.donaldrussell.com/simplicity/ready-meals.html