All the at-home kits we loved this week

It’s now clear we won’t be back in restaurants for a few months, but there’s still lots of at-home kits to enjoy in the meantime. Here the CODE team – plus our Instagram competition winner – share our favourites from the past week.

Ceru Cook at Home

One of the most enjoyable things about restaurants is eating food that you would never even attempt to cook at home. This is the case with Ceru’s Cook at Home chicken shish menu. Being an openly lazy cook, this meal kit takes all the hard work out of the cooking, with the chicken already marinated and the polenta and feta fries ready for frying. Not only that, the kit arrives wrapped up in a beautiful silk scarf that I may debut on my first trip out to a restaurant on 12 April. 
From £40 for two. Click here to order
Adam Hyman, founder

Chin Chin Ice Cream

How on earth does an ice cream brand pivot to nationwide delivery and at-home kits, you might ask? The answer is pretty well indeed. This week I had the pleasure of trying a selection of Chin Chin’s products – and there’s no other way to describe the griddled cookie dough starter kit than a gift from dessert heaven. The hot chocolate complete with a mini tub of handmade marshmallow fluff was also a wonderful weekend treat, as were the grilled white chocolate and bee pollen honeycomb snacks. Consider my sweet tooth very much satisfied.
Various prices. Click here to order
Harriet Prior, staff writer

Lyles Provisions

Hold fire whilst I pop to the shop for some more saucepans… I’ll admit that was my first thought on reading the recipe cards for my latest meal kit from Shoreditch favourite Lyles. As I carefully opened the beautifully packaged Game Menu Box (magnetic close, handwritten note and everything…) I was met with a wide array of amazing British produce (razor clams and red deer from Scotland, Lincolnshire smoked Eel). Fortunately, it turned out to be nowhere near as intimidating as at first glance (a bit of warming here, a little basting there), enabling me to play pretend at being chef when really all the work had already been done in advance. And my word was it good.
£140 for two. Click here to order
Will Lake, COO

Berenjak

Berenjak kebab kits have been a lockdown hit but now chef Kian Samyani has created something more involved and spectacular. The ghormeh sabzi kit (it’s the Iranian national dish) features marinated lamb, beans, herbs and preserved limes. It’s cooked in a beautiful clay pot, which comes with the kit and which I definitely intend to use again. The dish takes four hours to cook but after some initial prep it does its thing in the oven, while towards the end of cooking, it’s time to make the tahdig – rice that is baked with saffron water to make a stunning golden crust. I felt rather proud of the result and have ordered again; definitely one for the keen cooks to relish.
£45 for two. Click here to order
Lisa Markwell, editor

Bubala

Veggie or not, the Bubala mixed mezze will very quickly become one of your lockdown highlights.  The combination of it all was an exciting flavour explosion giving our taste buds a glimpse of the Middle East. The mix of hot and cold plates (perfect for the prep) and variety of textures all worked so well. The potato latkes & toum are to die for. I honestly cannot wait to be having sharing plates in the near future – but in the mean time, this beats thinking endlessly about what to cook for dinner for yet another evening of home dining.  P.s the little truffles at the end are divine!
£50 for two. Click here to order
Khyati Patel, CODE’s competition winner

Mobile Newt

I was meant to stay at The Newt in Somerset at the end of March last year but needless to say I couldn’t. Close to a year later I’m hoping to visit the sister hotel to Babylonstoren in South Africa this summer. However, while we remain locked up they’ve launched Mobile Newt allowing us to enjoy the food from their Botanical Rooms restaurant. Arriving neatly packaged and in sustainable boxes and containers, we started with apple waste sourdough and whipped chickpea, followed by slow braised lamb with butter beans, kale, anchovy and caper. To finish – a baked vanilla rice pudding with rhubarb and blood orange and some West Country cheeses. As well as being able to bring a bit of Somerset to the Barbican, this was the simplest of meals to get ready – merely turn the oven on and heated things up. Just how we like it! 
Various prices. Click here to order
Adam Hyman, founder

To read more of the best at-home kits we’ve eaten, click here