Tag: co-op

Celebrate Easter with Corte Molino Prosecco from the Co-op

We were sent two bottles of Corte Molino Prosecco to try in exchange for a review. All images and opinions are our own.

What a year it’s been. For me it’s been a year of worry about everyone I care about and in turn, all the people they care about too. What with working from home, home schooling and lockdowns x3, there’s been very little to celebrate; and as a consequence I’ve popped very few corks.

But times, they are a-changing. Spring is coming, swathes of people are getting vaccinated and there’s a distinct whiff of hope in the air. Let’s hope it lasts.

Corte Molino Prosecco – from the Co-op

Every other week or so, I virtually meet my friends for Zoom drinks. This is something I resisted for a while, I didn’t think I’d enjoy it; but Zoom drinks are now my favourite kind of Zoom. We’ve done gin tastings and wine tastings, bingo drinks and all kinds of stuff; but over the weekend I popped a cork on a bottle of Corte Molino Prosecco from the Co-op and I had the most fun evening.

Corte Molino Prosecco is currently available from the Co-op in two different varieties. There’s the regular Corte Molino Prosecco which costs £8.50 a bottle (currently on offer at £7 a bottle until 6th April 2021), and a lovely Corte Molino Pink Prosecco which also costs £8.50.

The pink fizz is newly launched and well worth seeking out. It’s made from a blend of Glera and Pinot Nero grapes, and has a jolly pink colour. It is a very easy drinking, light fizz with flavours of raspberry and strawberry and some delicate floral notes for good measure. It was just the thing for a Zoom drinks night; and it would make a fine and rather affordable gift or a treat for a friend or for yourself. Treat yourself.

Corte Molino Prosecco – from the Co-op

The white prosecco, which is currently on offer is also very, very drinkable. I’m going to hold my hands up and say even I couldn’t drink two bottles of fizz in one night, by myself; so I saved this to perk up Sunday lunch with. The white Corte Molino Prosecco is really crisp and dry, with lemon, peach and elderflower flavours. It’s a terrific bottle of fizz and one I’d happily buy week after week for Zoom drinks and other occasions.

I sometimes find prosecco a bit hit and miss, sometimes they can be too dry or too acidic, but these are really good quality and great value. I think £8.50 is a really good price for prosecco of this calibre.

Corte Molino Prosecco is currently available from the Co-op.

Curry Night with Co-operative Food

Cooking and eating are important activities in our house, my Dad (now known as Grandad) comes round for his tea at least once a week, it’s our way of ensuring that he eats a decent home-cooked meal regularly and it’s an excuse for us to have a “gravy dinner” with extra veg or something similar. Sometimes when I’m just too busy to cook we’ll get a takeaway, or get some ready meals in.

As a family we all love curry, after all it is the national dish! The problem with curry is that we all like different things, the small boy loves chicken korma, hubs likes a lamb rogan josh, Grandad likes a chicken tikka marsala and I’m a vegetable biryani kind of girl. It’s impossible to cook a curry we will all be happy with, takeaways or ready meals are where it’s at. I had noticed in my local Co-op that they’d recently launched a new range of curries, so we jumped at the chance of trying them when we were asked to have our own curry night at home.

co-op curry

We were sent the Co-op Loved by us Chicken Tikka Masala and pilau rice (500g £3.59), the Co-op Loved by us Chicken Karahi and pilau rice (500g £3.59) and the Co-op Loved by us Bengali Vegetable Masala Curry with pilau rice (500g £3.59) to try. These curries are individually priced or are available in a 2 for £6 offer.

The new range of 12 curries from Co-operative Food has been created by chef, Pratap Chinna who has over 35 years experience as a chef and has been creating exotic recipes for retailers for the last five years.

My first impression was that they smelt delicious, the Chicken Kahari one especially filled the kitchen with a lovely, mouth-watering smell which has the boys running to the table for their tea. The meals are very generously portioned, I was unable to finish mine it was so big, it’s a good sized meal for a good sized appetite.

We served our curries with naan bread and poppadoms, because no curry is complete without them. Hubs had the chicken kahari which he really enjoyed, it looked and smelt good, with big chunks of chicken and lots of sauce, he said he’d definitely have it again. The packet said medium and it had a kick of heat and was the hottest of the three curries we tried.

co-op curry

Grandad had the chicken tikka masala, again this was a good sized portion which he struggled to finish, it had a good creamy sauce and nice chunks of chicken, he enjoyed it and said he’d eat it again (which is massive praise from my Dad).

I had the Bengali Vegetable Masala Curry which was full of lots of different vegetables, the sauce was spicier than I was expecting but it was flavoursome and very filling.

As well as the price and the portion size, what I also liked about them was their calorie counts – ok so the cream-based chicken tikka marsala was 702 calories for the whole ready meal, that’s probably a lot less than a takeaway,the chicken kahari was a decent 583 calories which makes that a pretty healthy option for a meal, and my vegetable marsala was just 449 calories. They’re not made to be low-fat or low calorie, but if you’re keeping tabs on that kind of thing I thought these were pretty good calorie-wise.

We’re giving Co-op curry the thumbs up!