The Blurb
Kansas City barbecue restaurant and taproom, Prairie Fire, has recently teamed up with the all-natural, high-quality Cut Rum brand to create a Caribbean-inspired meal kit. The limited-edition kits feeds two to three people and include a whole, smoked jerk chicken; rice and peas; jalapeño cheesy corn; two spiced rum cakes made with Cut Rum; plus a bottle of bespoke Cut Rum Jerk BBQ Sauce; a bottle of Prairie Fire’s award-winning Caribbean Hot Sauce; and two pre-made Cut Rum Passionfruit Punch cocktails. The dishes are all fully cooked and vac-packed, so all you have to do is reheat and enjoy.
The Experience & The Food
Prairie Fire is one of my favourite Kansas-City-style barbecue joints in London, so I went into this meal with high expectations, and I’m happy to report that I wasn’t let down. Let’s start with the cocktails: The Cut Rum Passionfruit cocktail made with Cut Spiced Rum, a blend of Jamaican Pot Still rum from Worthy Park Estate in Jamaica and Column Still rum from the Trinidad Distillery and natural flavourings, is like sunshine in a glass. Even on a rainy and dreary London evening it had the power to transport me to sunnier shores. The cocktail is the perfect thing to hold you over as you reheat your meal. I found the smoked jerk chicken took around 45 minutes to fully reheat (versus the 20-30 minutes stated on the instructions); however, it is worth the wait for such fire-kissed, succulent, juicy meat with an impressive smoke ring – the hallmark of truly great, low and slow-cooked barbecue. The chicken is massive too, and you will almost certainly have leftovers, especially if it’s just for two people.
The sides of delicious Jamaican-style rice and peas and smoky, fiery jalapeño cheesy corn are equally generous, and these heat-up in their vacuumed-packed bags within a pot in no time at all (the bags make clean-up very easy too.) The kit also comes with two bottles of sauce, and you’ll be hard-pressed to pick a favourite between them. The hot sauce is full of nuance and flavour despite packing an impressive heated punch, and the custom-made Cut Rum jerk sauce is zesty, fresh, and good enough to eat with a spoon. The meal was slightly thrown off by dessert, rum spice cakes with banana and coconut and Cut Spiced Rum, as they tasted more like a traditional French canelé than a spice cake. They were still very tasty, just not as expected; however, all in all, this is a fantastic, well-priced dinner that will not disappoint.
The Details
The limited-edition Prairie Fire & Cut Rum Caribbean Staycation Meal Kit is priced at £70.00 (feeds 2-3 people). Place orders by 12 noon on Tuesday, and get free nationwide delivery by Friday (the food keeps for 3 days refrigerated).
More info over at www.prairiefirebbq.com
