Barker's Marinade - Lemongrass product reviews

I had seen some of these marinades in the supermarket but had not tried them before this one. I am not usually as big fan of premade sauces/marinades as they aren't that hard to put together. I did use this for a quick throw together noodle stir fry mid-week which was great. I think that sort of use would be ideal. We are big fans of citrus in our house adding lemon and lime often to dishes for a bit of a zizz.

I loved the friendly easy to open packet which was clear about what it was. I loved the size of the serving inside which felt really generous. On opening it was strong lime smell and a bit of ginger... not sure I am quite familiar enough with lemongrass to know if it was there. I loved that you could get every last morsel out of the packet and I squeezed it really well and felt that nothing was wasted. This was probably also a reflection of not having nasty additives and preservatives hidden in it

You can see from the picture I marinated some chicken which was great as it served five of us easily. This definitely added a strong taste to the dish which would otherwise have been quite dry and blander. As I was frying the chicken I felt it was a waste of the rather fragrant mixture so I cooked the noodles with what was left of it in with the chicken (not my most sophisticated idea but it worked!). I loved the result and this has led to buying more already for nights when we don't want to think.

We definitely love the lemongrass marinade from Barkers. Not sure how authentic the taste is but for my personal tastes it was lovely. It really gave a different taste. I would probably have added some more ginger though as that didn't really come through and I love a good ginger taste. This was a real hit in our house and we have already bought more.

I don't tend to cook many Asian flavoured dishes but was intrigued when I saw this new Barker's marinade which was Lemongrass. During the week I like dishes that are simple to prepare and don't use many dishes (joys of having no dishwasher!), this already prepared marinade sounded like it could be a winning solution. The packet is vibrant and would stand out easily on a shelf to grab a shopper's attention, the size of 300g is generous and should easily cover enough meat for one of our dinners.

Opening the packet, I was expecting to smell the sweetness of the lemongrass, but rather than that I could only really smell the lime flavour unfortunately, I hoped this would change though once the meat had marinated and cooked. I chose to do a quick beef stir-fry, so I chopped the meat into strips and let it marinade while I got the other aspects of the dinner prepared, about 30 minutes later I was ready to start cooking the meat.

The meat did not take long to cook and was served with vegetables and rice, the smell of the meat was still mainly lime with a tiny hint of ginger mixed in. When I took the first bite and chewed slowly, I wasn't a fan of the marinade if I'm perfectly honest, the lime was overpowering, and I did not taste much lemongrass but could taste a hint of ginger. The children liked it but said that they would not like to have it again in a hurry.

I think the marinade in a packet idea is a winner, however personally our family was not a fan of this particular flavour this time around. I look forward to seeing what other flavour combinations Barker's can come up with in the future.

Marinades are fun to work with. You can make all sorts of dishes with just a little imagination and the minimum of effort as the flavour and sauce are all done for you - all that remains to be done is to add the meat/fish/tofu/pulses or whatever else takes your fancy. We were looking forward to trying this sauce as both of us enjoy Asian cuisine, and this sounded like a simple but effective way to enhance a plain meal. As a student, I worked part-time in an Asian restaurant and most of my friends were from South-East Asia, so I learned to appreciate (and prepare) many different ethnic dishes. Of course, those meals were cooked from scratch, but who has time to do that these days? Prepared meal bases are certainly the way to go.

The ingredients listed on the packet were interesting: although, as with all Barker's products, they were naturally produced without any chemical additives, the main ingredient was lime rather than lemongrass. However, we were willing to give it a go and enjoy the experience. The other vital ingredients were, as I would have expected, ginger and lemongrass, although these were included in much smaller quantities.

Time was short, so I used some of the marinade to flavour some precooked prawns. It was thick and coated them well so we were pleased with the result. They looked good and once marinated would take only a few minutes to reheat. While they were absorbing the flavour, I put cooked ribbon noodles and assorted vegetables into a separate bowl and added the remainder of the marinade.

I reheated the two dishes separately then divided some of the noodle vegetable mixture between two bowls, adding some prawns on top. They looked delicious and we could not wait to try them. Alas, the marinade was far too strong. Although it was not especially spicy, the lime flavour was so intense that we could taste neither the ginger nor the lemongrass. The prawn flavour, delicate at the best of times, was completely overcome by the lime. Once I got used to the flavour, I was able to eat my dinner, but it was so strong that I had to fetch a couple of slices of bread to tone down the flavour.

I think this would be a lovely dish if the lime content were reduced and more of the ginger and lemongrass included - it definitely looked attractive once it was dished up, and the marinade retained its texture when heated so I think the rest of the dish will reheat well. (The packet recommended that it would serve six, so I made a larger quantity than was needed for just two of us.) When I serve the leftovers, however, I will put some bread rolls on the table to lessen the effect of the lime.