Ready meals with lamb
Marks & Spencer Cook! leg of lamb 330g, £4.99
Great meat and marinade. For a ready meal, this is really impressive! As good as it gets.
5 stars
Patchwork lamb tagine 300g, £7.35, www.patchwork-pate.co.uk
I like the whole almonds and apricots. Great flavours and it tastes homemade.
5 stars
Fortnum & Mason crusted lamb 370g, £22, 020 7734 8040
Very nice crust and very good-quality lamb with a great Dijon flavour. Superb.
5 stars
Cook spiced lamb tagine 290g, £3.99, www.cookfood.net
Lots of good spice going on and good ingredients, but it's a bit too sweet for me. Really not bad at all.
4 stars
Ready meals with chicken
Patchwork corn-fed chicken in champagne 300g, £6.40
I'd like the meat pieces to be slightly bigger, but it's a great mix of ingredients and good colours. Very nice.
4 stars
Cook Moroccan harissa chicken 325g, £3.30
The meat is dry, but the spices are good. I like the idea and the almonds taste lovely.
3 stars
Bighams parmesan-crusted chicken breast 300g, £6.49, www.ocado.com
Not particularly offensive and not particularly nice, but it looks appealing and I like the crust.
3 stars
Waitrose chicken breast in white wine and tarragon sauce 450g, £4.99
The sauce is creamy and the tarragon is coming through nicely, but the chicken is dry.
2 stars
Ready meals with beef
Manna organic beef braised in red wine 350g, pounds 4.60, www.mannaorganic.co.uk
Nice balance of ingredients - good cut of meat and it tastes like it's been cooked with care.
5 stars
Graig Farm organic beef casserole 400g, pounds 5.10, 01597 851655
Looks and tastes nice and homemade. Made well with good ingredients - and you can taste them all.
4 stars
Waitrose beef stroganoff 550g, pounds 7.29
Greasy, but it tastes good. It's rich and creamy with very strong flavours.
4 stars
Patchwork beef in Offa's Dyke ale with chestnut mushrooms 300g, pounds 7.20
Quite nice and boozy, but the meat could be more tender. The sauce is good.
3 stars
Ready meals with fish
Tesco Finest rosemary-crusted trout 300g, £4.49
I like the fact they've left the skin on and they get points for using trout. Would be good with a green salad.
4 stars
Waitrose salmon open ravioli 430g, £4.99
It's certainly creamy! It makes me feel dense and lumpish. The salmon is decent, though.
3 stars
Manna organic fish pie 400g, £4.95
Just not quite everything you want from a fish pie, but you can tell someone has put some work into it.
3 stars
Forman & Field salmon coubiliac serves 6-8, £19.95, www.formanandfield.com
Nice idea, but poorly executed. It needs more seasoning and sauce. The salmon is good-quality though.
2 stars
Curries
Sainsbury's taste the difference chicken tikka masala 500g, £3.79
Juicy chicken and the sauce is nice, creamy and tomatoey. It's hot and it's good.
4 stars
M&S Keralan king-prawn curry 350g, £4.49
The sauce is fragrant and limey, maybe a bit too stodgy. The flavours are good.
4 stars
Cook Indonesian vegetable curry 345g, £3.30
Very colourful, lots of green, which I like. But the flavour is mediocre.
3 stars
Bighams Sri Lankan chicken curry 600g, £5.99
It's got some sharpness to it, but the chicken is bland.
2 stars
Mash pies M&S gastropub cottage pie 660g, £4.99
Not too heavy, good structure, great mash and the meat is tasty. A really proper pie. Superb.
5 stars
Tesco finest Aberdeen Angus cottage pie 720g, £3.98
There is nothing wrong with it, but it's nothing special either.
3 stars
Manna organic shepherd's pie 350g, £4.30
The mash is not up to scratch. It's like an English school shepherd's pie.
3 stars
Waitrose Cumberland pie 400g, £1.99
The topping looks strange, it's got no texture and it's got no good aftertaste (which a pie should have).
1 star
Pastry pies
Sharpham Park spelt-and-venison pie 230g, £7.95, 01458 844080
The pastry has too much thyme. But the filling is great, with nice strong flavours.
4 stars
Forman & Field Simple Simon's organic beef/mushroom pie serves 1-2, £4.95
Lovely pastry. The filling could be more interesting, but the beef is well cooked.
4 stars
Bighams British beef-and-ale pie 635g, £7.99
The filling is too runny, but the ale flavour is good and the pastry is nice and rough.
4 stars
Higgidy free-range pork sausage-and-mash pie, 300g, £3.49, www.higgidy.co.uk
Both pastry and filling are nice, but it's a bit too heavy.
3 stars
· Allegra McEvedy's Colour Cookbook is published by Kyle Cathie. She is also the chef behind Leon, www.leonrestaurants.co.uk
