The full kit and kaboodle.
Hold on, let me guess - it's another home delivery service...
It is, but then this is Hawksmoor's home delivery offering. It's the place most Hot Dinners readers wanted to eat at for their first post-lockdown restaurant visit, so it was always going to be of particular interest.
Haven't they left it a bit late? After all, restaurants are reopening.
They are, but Hawksmoor are doing it slowly - their first London restaurant to open will be Borough on the 9th July followed by Seven Dials on the 21st. And we know that Hawksmoor fans are legion, so they probably can't wait that long. Plus, as owners Huw and Will have said it's also a way "to enable people to enjoy Hawksmoor in their own homes if they can’t or don’t want to go to a restaurant for any reason ... or just because they want to!"
So what's in the box?
In it, you'll find everything you need to have a first-class steak dinner - from your sharpener cocktail through to accompanying sides. There's even a copy of their recipe book so you can follow the instructions from Hawksmoor's Master of Meat Richard Turner on how to cook the steak. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Quick drink for the cook?
Crack open the martini...
To start with there's a rather lovely looking bottled cocktail - Hawksmoor's ultimate dry martini. This one's made with Hepple gin, their own blend of vermouths and a few drops of Sicilian lemon oil. It's a no-brainer martini that you can pour straight from the freezer without any of that James Bond nonsense.
Is this is more of a DIY rather than a reheat job?
It is, and it's probably more along the lines of a kit rather than a meal that you simply assemble. Here are some of the steps:
As triple cooking chips was deemed too tricksy for a home kitchen, instead you get three Pierre Koffmann potatoes that you'll have to peel and quarter to make the beef dripping potatoes. These have the most amount of steps to follow on the detailed instruction sheet that comes with it - but in essence, they're glorified roasties. Of course, you get a huge pot of beef dripping to roast them in.
The kit comes with two pieces of bone marrow and you're supposed to scoop both out and add it to the simmering Madeira jus to make the Hawksmoor bone marrow gravy. But we decided to keep one back of them to roast along with the potatoes and there was more than enough marrow for the gravy too.
The steak is a huge Porterhouse for two. All you need to do here is season it and slap on a BBQ (preferred) or in a grill pan (as long as you don't mind smoking out your kitchen). Follow the recipe book to the letter here for perfect results. Add to that a glass of really excellent Punta Malbec (the most popular wine in their restaurants) - or one of their own label lagers, both of which you'll find in the box, and you really have the makings of quite a feast.
The final spread also includes tenderstem broccoli, tossed in Gentleman's Relish butter. Actually, we were pretty pleased with our efforts.
Any dessert?
Sadly not - we were hoping to find a pack of their homage to Rolos secreted at the bottom of the box, but no such luck.
Overall thoughts:
To begin with, we were a little bit worried our home cooking efforts wouldn't quite live up to Hawksmoor's exacting standards. But the instructions were so clear that it actually was quite an easy job in the end. The food and drink was all, as you would expect, marvellous. Even better, we had enough beef left over for a cracking sandwich the next day. It's fair to say Hot Dinners' meat-eating readers are going to love this.
More about Hawksmoor at Home
How much: £120 - feeds two people
Delivery: There are just 500 boxes per week over the next 6 weeks and it's available for nationwide home delivery
Find out more: Visit their website to order
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