product focus
soups & ready-meals
Little conveniences
LYNDA SEARBY fills her bowl with the latest speciality pies, soups and prepared foods
Frozen food supplier field fare
is tapping into the resurgence of
old-time comfort foods with a range
of four ‘British Classic’ pies: steak
& kidney, chicken & mushroom
in a white wine sauce; ham hock
with peas in a béchamel sauce and
butternut squash, goats’ cheese &
leeks. RRP £3.49; wholesale price
£2.35.
www.field-fare.com
Yorkshire Provender is
gearing up for winter with two
new seasonal varieties, a festive
special edition and a new 380g
single-serve range. Mushroom
soup with wholegrain black rice
and broccoli & Lancashire cheese
soup feature seasonal veg,
whilst Christmas Turkey Soup &
All The Trimmings is described
as “Christmas in a bowl”. Each
600g pot has an RRP of £2.49,
and independents should be
aware that they are on sale in
Waitrose, Co-op, Northern Tesco
stores, Ocado, Booths, Budgens
and Nisa.
One of the downsides of pastrytopped pies is that they can’t
be microwaved without going
soggy. Recognising the gap in the
market for a convenient pie option,
Pieminister has launched Pie
Pots, potato topped pots in three
varieties: Moo & Brew (beef steak
& craft ale), Matador (beef steak
& chorizo) and Cheeky Chick (free
range chicken, white wine & leeks).
In another twist on the
traditional pie, during September,
the Bristol producer introduced
Open Top pies, which have 30% less
pastry as the lid has been replaced
with a béchamel sauce. These are available in three varieties: Mighty
Aphrodite (red pepper, aubergine & green lentils), Green Goddess
(spinach, feta, chickpea & butter squash) and Tipsy Chick (free range
chicken, leek, pea, mint & Orchard Pig cider). All pies have an RRP of
£3.50.
www.pieminister.co.uk
www.yorkshireprovender.co.uk
Friends and professional chefs
David Holliday and Oliver Shute are
championing
British game
country cooking
with a new
brand of soups,
stocks and
pasta sauces.
Their venture
David and
Oliver
Foods is
sourcing
game from British estates
and farms to make wild game
bird soup, royal game soup and
pheasant mulligatawny. The
ambient single-serve 300g soup
pouches are available to the trade
via Epicurium, DW Holleys, West
Country Direct, Cotswold Fayre
and Hider and are aleady on sale in
Waitrose. RRP £1.99.
Two of Devon’s artisan food
producers – pie producer
Okemoor and curry specialist
Boom Kitchen – have joi