If you visit the café regularly or follow us on social media, you’re probably aware that Kumbuk does an interesting range of delectable Homemade Products. With Christmas around the corner, the list has grown longer; and this year we took it upon ourselves to create enjoyable gift hampers made from the best of local produce and packed with lots of love and care. If you’ve been contemplating getting one for your loved ones or have been gifted one, here’s a little guide on how to use it.
The Kumbuk Seasonal Gift Hamper undoubtedly packs Christmas in a box; with cinnamon pancake mix, brandy butter, poultry rub, mulled wine mix and cranberry and sour cherry chutney – this couldn’t be more true. The poultry rub has all the necessary ingredients to flavor your Christmas Roast, and most importantly that bottle is enough for 2-3 turkeys so you might as well have Christmas Roast for the next few days too! The cranberry and sour cherry chutney too has a spot at your Christmas Roast Lunch, it is divine served over a well seasoned turkey. The mulled wine mix smells like Christmas in a bottle and is great to entertain your guests, day or night. Empty the contents into a saucepan add one bottle of wine, bring to a simmer, serve warm and enjoy in good company. The brandy butter – a strikingly British treat – is generally served over warm Christmas pudding, it melts and oozes into the pud to bring out the exquisite flavours with just a tinge of alcohol. If you’re feeling especially festive you could even set it on fire while it melts.
We love our Christmases so it might seem like we get carried away with all things Christmas in December, but we actually have a decent lot of other products still available all year round. We’ve got our granolas bottled up – all you gotta do is top it with fruits and milk of choice and dig in. We’ve also got pancake mixes that can be easily made at home and a range of flavoured salts and sugars. Many people ask us how to use these salts and sugars. In the case of the salts, it works perfectly as seasoning on meat (especially rosemary and garlic salt) or just add some of the salt into your everyday foods to make it interesting. Similarly use the sugars to sweeten everyday drinks like tea/coffee (lavender sugar adds an interesting flavor to black tea while hazelnut sugar accentuates the flavours of coffee). Alternatively, sprinkle them over bakes and enjoy!
If you ask what my favourite among the lot is, it would be the Spiced Feta. It’s particularly useful around the household in flavouring salads; smash the feta over the salad and drizzle some of the infused olive oil to give your greens a bit more flavor. Top it off with some balsamic vinegar and your salads will be a lot more tempting. Alternatively you could make an interesting dip out of it to go with your chips or to go on top of toast. The superseeds mix is another list topper; it’s easy to make and can be breakfast or dessert! Just add warm water, mix it well, leave it over night and dig in when peckish.
In keeping with the ethos of Café Kumbuk, we strive to make most of our products with locally sourced produced, but are always fresh and with zero chemical additives – we even avoid refined sugars or use palm sugar substitutes. We also have a strict no plastics rule so most of our packaging is recyclable or reusable around the household. If you haven’t tried our products yet, swing by the café and grab some or place your order via email cafekumbuk@gmail.com. Celebrate this season of giving by gifting gourmet treats, or a carefully curated box of treats – we are taking Hamper orders until the 13th of Christmas so be sure to get yours in right away!
By Ashan Wijesinghe
