This Little Pig Went to Market – Gourmet Meal Kits!

We all remember this catchy childhood rhyme and two Perth sisters have brought it to life with their business, This Little Pig Went to Market (TLPWTM). But don’t worry, no little piggies will be crying “wee wee wee” all the way home or missing out on roast beef with thanks to Jessica and Katherine 🙂

So how did their business come to be? Well it all began with some sisterly email to and fro back in 2012 and the pair’s love of food and their passion at sharing quality produce, gourmet dishes and the ease of cooking with others. My kinda girls! Now TLPWTM offers gourmet meal kits that come complete with all the ingredients you’ll need and detailed instructions to ensure that you’ll be dishing up something very impressive for dinner.

And I think what they are doing is a wonderful thing. You know you are going to be home for dinner with your special someone on Saturday and Sunday nights and sure it might be easy enough to order take-away but there are few instances when any take-away would be better for you than something home cooked. The ingredients they source are all super fresh, from the meats and vegies, to the sauces and marinades that they prepare to enhance the ease of making their meals. I would say that it’s what I found to be a real point of difference for TLPWTM. Everything you need for their recipe is delivered to your door and carefully labelled so you know what is needed for each meal. They also use eco-friendly packaging when possible, including a very funky insulated box that can handle the sun and the elements for up to 4 hours, which ensures that everything stays fresh if they drop it off while you are out.

It was excitement plus at our house when we realised that TLPWTM had trotted up to our door! A big beautiful box, complete with bow along with a separate smaller bag was waiting for us. It felt a little like Christmas 🙂 I eagerly relocated the deliveries inside and the fun started as we took everything out and could see all the lovely, fresh ingredients that we had to look forward to over the weekend. On the menu for us was:

They provide guidance as to which recipe should be cooked first and all the related ingredients were clearly marked with an orange dot. So I cleared a space in the fridge for everything that needed to be refrigerated and the wait was on until dinner time! Tick tock 🙂

We were going to have the Chicken San Choy Bow with Crunchy Pickle, Herbed Rice and Lettuce Cups first so I donned an apron, poured a glass of wine (not a requirement, but just something I like to do when I cook 🙂 ) and diligently arranged all the ingredients out on the bench. With a knife and cutting board at the ready it was go time. On the equipment side, the things you’ll need are all at the more basic end of the scale – pots, pans, cutting board, knives – which is handy and doesn’t mean you’ll need to race out and order a thermomix 🙂

There were 7 steps for this recipe and I carefully worked my way through each – chopping chilli, peeling cucumber ribbons, stirring the marinated chicken mince, heating the pre-cooked brown rice cups (love that they do this because I quite like brown rice but it takes forever to cook!) and readying the lettuce cups. As advised in the prep and cooking guides it’s not a time intensive process and I enjoyed seeing it all come together.

Soon enough it was all ready! I’m terrible at hand foods at the best of times, but I feel I was as elegant as possible as I eagerly chomped into my lettuce parcel and savoured the contrasting flavours of the herbed rice salad, zesty pickled veg and the flavoursome chicken. It really was delicious! Their marinades and sauces were all really punchy and it was just a winning combination. We both thoroughly enjoyed it and found it to be very filling.

Had me very excited about the second meal on Sunday! Lamb Forequarter Chops on a Bed of Fluffy Pomegranate and Chevre Quinoa. I’m a big fan of lamb and while I probably tend to go with loin chops instead of forequarter, because forequarter tends to be a slightly fattier cut, there was still an abundance of meat on each of the chops that came for this meal.

So for a second time this weekend it was a half hour flurry of activity as herbs were cut, quinoa was cooked, chops were marinated then fried and probably the biggest challenge was getting all those ruby jewels out of the pomegranate. The kitchen bench had somewhat of a scene of the crime look about it once I was done, as the dramatic drops of red pomegranate juice were splashed here and there….. ok everywhere!

For a second evening we were really impressed with the flavour of the meal. Delicious marinade on the lamb and a really interesting and pretty salad with the creamy chevre, sweet pomegranates and vibrant fresh green herbs. I also loved the way they get you to cook the quinoa. I’d never done it that way and I will definitely be doing so in future. I’d used pre-seasoned quinoa packets before and you get given a very specific measure of water to use, whereas TLPWTM advise you to get a nearly full pot of seasoned water boiling and then you just boil the quinoa and strain it. Comes out so perfectly fluffy! Again we were full to the brim after this delicious meal and there may have even been a little extra salad for GG to enjoy for his lunch on Monday.

Two meals and two definite thumbs up from me and my dining companion GG. Fresh, healthy and ample! Oink indeed 🙂

What I like about TLPWTM is that while everyone may want to be a master chef these days, perhaps they don’t have the time to devote to improving their culinary skills. These boxes provide an opportunity to try a few new recipes at home, without the stress of having to scout the shops for everything you’ll need, along with then mixing up marinades. Instead they’ll just arrive at your door, ready to go! Easy peasy! I can see it being perfect too if you are having someone special around for dinner that you are out to impress. One of these meals would be ideal!

I’m very grateful to have heard from Jessica and Katherine and to have been introduced to This Little Pig Went to Market. Thank you ladies. I’m all for Perth businesses that promote good, tasty, home cooked meals and these girls, two passionate foodies are doing great work. I think the way TLPWTM have structured their gourmet dinner boxes will be very popular and I feel they are very reasonably priced given all the leg work has been done for you. I’ve already eyed off the menu for this coming week and I am very tempted to re-live the magic all over again with two new recipes 🙂 I’m sure they’ll have very busy trotters this year!

There’s plenty of information on their website, but to summarise a few key points for you:

• 2 Piglet Pack: Dinner for 2 nights for 2 people is $65
• 4 Piglet Pack: Dinner for 2 nights for 4 people is $130
• You can sign up to be a Committed Pig and get a weekly dinner of a 2 Piglet Pack
• Deliveries are currently made on Saturdays between 10am and 6pm
• For the full list of suburbs they currently deliver to just click here 
• They have some great local suppliers such as Kailis, Frank Torres Butcher and Lawleys and New Norcia Bakeries
• They are currently developing vegetarian and gluten free offerings but these are not available at this stage

Well worth giving it a go! Thank you This Little Pig Went to Market – oink, oink, oink 🙂