Charlie Bigham's meals. Once tried, never forgotten

My wife and I had a plan for Valentine's Day, just gone.

We would have a meal at home with a bottle of wine and something tasty served with vegetables and mashed potatoes.

We chose two Charlie Bigham's Steak and Ale Pies. And we both promptly fell ill with a rather nasty flu bug that really knocked us for six. Even though we had both had the flu shot!

So the two Charlie Bigham's Steak and Ale Pies languished in the freezer until such time as we actually felt like eating a substantial meal.

The first thing that we noticed was that the pies come in nice individual ceramic ramekins. (Which Charlie wants you to donate to a charity shop as they can easily get a couple of Pounds for them.)

The second thing that we noticed is that they actually looked like real, proper pies. (Those of you who have seen some pies on sale in the local supermarket will understand that some pies on sale do not look like proper pies. At all.)

We cooked the pies in our convection oven and soon were overcome by the absolutely delicious aroma that began to waft from the oven.

When it came time to serve the pies we found the to be utterly delicious. The vegetables were just right and the meat was absolutely perfect. Melt in the mouth is the nearest description to the perfection of each piece of carefully selected beef.

And the ale gravy? This was the best ale gravy that I had tasted in, well, ever, really.

The vast majority of steak and ale pies it is not possible to notice any ale in the gravy at all.

But with Charlie Bigham's Steak and Ale Pies you can enjoy a delicious flavouring of the good, high quality ale that is used in the recipe.

And as for the pastry? My wife is an expert pastry cook and she described it as faultless and utterly delicious.

You should be able to find them in Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Ocado, Booths and Budgens.

They should cost £7.00 for two pies.

Introducing Cauli Rice

Cauli Rice is not rice, but, made from cauliflowers, it is a pretty good replacement for rice.

Why would you need to replace rice in your diet? Rice is a carb rich food and Cauli Rice contains an amazing 75% less calories than ordinary rice, so using Cauli Rice in place ordinary rice can certainly help reduce the overall calorie count in our diets.

And a high carb diet is certainly something that diabetics need to guard against. So low carb Cauli Rice is something that every diabetic should look at introducing into their diet to replace normal rice.

There are no potentially harmful additives in Caulie rice and the clever folks who developed Cauli Rice and who prepare and cook it for you have, quite rightly, eschewed the use of preservatives, so Cauli Rice is a wholesome and entirely natural product.

There are four delicious flavours for you to choose from: Original, Lemongrass and Chilli, Indian Pilau (EDITOR: My favourite!) and Mediterranean, so whether you are, for example, preparing an Indian meal from scratch, grilling some sausages or putting together a tasty salad, Cauli Rice will serve as the ideal accompaniment for your meal.

And preparing the Cauli Rice is simplicity itself. All you do is place it in the microwave for two and a half minutes and it is ready to serve.

And it doesn't need to be stored in a refrigerator, so can simply wait in your pantry until you need to cook it.

For those of you who need to know these things (EDITOR: Like fellow diabetics, for example!) 100g of Original flavour Cauli Rice contains 34 Kcals and 3g of carbohydrates again -for example- 10g of white rice which contains 138Kcal and 31g of carbohydrates.

Obviously, whilst it is not a 100% replacement for rice, it is still well worth buying Cauli Rice as it is a tasty and healthy alternative to rice and at a recommended retail price of £1.99 (it serves two)  it's certainly well worth purchasing for the pantry.

To learn more or to buy online visit www.caulirice.com.