Trader Joe's Beef Bolognese Ravioli

Once in a while, I forget to take a picture of something new I bring home from Trader Joe's. This was one such time. I had to fish the container out of the trash when I sat down to write this and realized I didn't have a photo.

The center of this ravioli is stuffed with a mixture of ground beef and what is effectively a pasta sauce--tomato paste and seasonings. Kind of oddly, it's as if the marinara is on the inside, instead of needing to add it to the outside.


Will I buy it again? 

No, even though I liked it a lot. This joins a line of TJ's products that I will buy once to try, but not again, because of wanting to minimize the amount of meat--especially beef and pork--in my diet.

But there's another reason here. Look closely at the list of ingredients as shown above (which I did not do until I had already finished eating). This is the second time that TJ's has slipped veal into one of its products and disclosed it only in the fine print, not prominently. My tolerance for beef and pork is low, but not zero. My tolerance for veal is zero. If you told me that this is an indefensibly arbitrary ethical line of demarcation on my part, I wouldn't argue with you. It probably is. But it's what I choose anyway. As a result, I would not have bought this if I had noticed that ingredient.

Oops: This was supposed to publish Tuesday, May 9, but I messed up the settings and it ran early. Oh well. Now that it's out in the world, I won't try to call it back.

Trader Joe's Beef Steak Burritos With Seasoned Beans

Terribly bland. Pieces of beef were tough. Even following the heating instructions carefully, the burrito shell comes out soggy in some places, dried out and hard in others.


Will I buy it again? 

No.

Trader Joe's Beef Barley Soup With Veggies

I liked this. It has little enough beef that I don't feel too guilty about eating it. It's a little on the bland side, but not horribly so.


Will I buy it again? 

Probably once or twice a year.

Trader Joe's Steak & Ale Pies

In form, these are identical to the Chicken Balti Pies, which were based on this product.

The first smell I got upon cutting open one of these pies fresh from the oven was onion, followed by beer. This was not a felicitous start, as I hate onions and don't drink beer. Fortunately, the prominence of those smells was not matched in flavor, as I could barely taste either component.

The contents are much like any beef pot pie, other than the ale. There are no surprises here; what you see is what you get.

Will I buy it again? 

No. My consumption of beef is down around once a month. That's not a self-imposed strict limitation or anything, just the practical result of making a bunch of grocery-store and restaurant decisions differently than I did a few years ago. If I were going to treat myself to one beef-based product from Trader Joe's, it would be the Shepherd's Pie, not this. In fact, even though I wasn't a big fan of the Chicken Balti Pies, if I had to buy and eat either those or these steak and ale pies, I'd go with the balti--first because they were at least modestly interesting and different from standard American fare, and second because chicken is less problematic than beef on a whole lot of parameters.

Trader Joe's Handcrafted Beef Tamales Wrapped In Corn Husks

These are pretty good, though a long way short of outstanding. They're also a decent value, at $2.29 for two, with each one making a good centerpiece of a meal. As with most Trader Joe's products--and it seems especially their Mexican foods--they are unnecessarily toned down by the Blandification Committee, though not quite as much as some other items I've tried. They are admirably beefy, and the shredded beef is flavorful and easily the best part of the tamale.

Preparation is not quite as simple as one typically expects for frozen foods. The directions give you the choice between steaming in a microwave oven (after wrapping the product in a wet paper towel) or using some sort of steamer. Since my rice cooker has a steamer attachment, that's what I did. The first one came out perfectly, though I left it in for 30 minutes instead of the recommended 20-25. The second time around, I stopped it at 25 minutes, and the center was still only about room temperature, so I'd recommended going long on the timing.

Will I buy it again? 

Probably not. I'm becoming ever more convinced that beef is a problematic food, and that there are sufficient reasons to shift one's consumption toward some combination of poultry and plant-based meat substitutes. These were okay, but not so compelling that I'd want to use up my shrinking, self-imposed beef rations this way.

Trader Joe's Shepherd's Pie

Like most of my Trader Joe's purchases, this was one that I did not plan to make. I was looking for something else in the freezers when it caught my eye. A version of shepherd's pie is one of my favorite dishes to make for myself, so I was immediately interested.

I liked almost everything about it. The size was just right. Preparation was heat-and-serve. The shredded beef was great, tasting just like I remember Mom's pot roast on Sundays after church. The vegetables were crisp, brightly colored, and had individually identifiable tastes (unlike many frozen pot pies, in which everything assumes a weird sort of flavor homogeneity). And, blessed relief, I only know that onions are an ingredient by reading the label; their quantity is sufficiently small and their impact sufficiently subdued that I encountered no hunk or pocket of onion that would have spoiled the whole thing. (The unofficial motto of this blog: Onions ruin everything.)

So why not an unqualified endorsement? The one off-putting characteristic was that the potato layer on top was grossly overwatered. Not only were the potatoes mushy--almost slimy--but the wetness trickled down into everything else, creating an unpleasant potato-water puddle at the bottom of the dish.

I did follow the heating directions, but I think next time I'll try exposing more of the surface to the oven, rather than just loosening the plastic overwrap an inch, as the package instructs.

If I can solve the problem of sogginess, this will completely replace my purchase of any other frozen pot pies. (I consider this in the same category, because whether the basic ingredients are contained in a crust or topped by mashed potatoes doesn't matter much to me.)

Will I buy it again? 

Yes. Must experiment with better heating methodology. There may be a winner waiting here.


Addendum 

After writing the above, I Googled to see if others had had a similar experience with excessive moisture. The first four reviews I found were these:

http://www.whatsgoodattraderjoes.com/2011/01/trader-joes-shepherds-pie.html

http://onefoodguy.blogspot.com/2008/02/tuesdays-tasting-trader-joes-shepards.html

http://www.traderjoesfan.com/component/mtree/products/frozen/shepherds_pie/

http://burgersdogspizza.com/2011/02/home-cookin-trader-joes-sheperds-pie/

None of them described anything like the puddle I found, so I'm willing to assume that this was a one-off issue. The good news is that these reviews date as far back as 2006, which presumably means that this is a perennial good seller and won't suddenly vanish.


Update

It's been a few months since I wrote the review above. (That's usually the case. I have such a backlog of posts that there's typically about four months between writing and publishing, except for when I push one to the front of the line for some reason, such as seasonal relevance.) I have purchased this item three more times since then. With the second pie, I cut off the transparent film corner rather than just peeling it back as the directions indicate. That did nothing, and the liquid problem remained--so it wasn't a one-off thing as I had speculated. For the third one, I removed the film entirely before baking the pie. That reduced the problem significantly, but did not eliminate it. For the fourth one, I did that plus I extended the baking time from the recommended 25-30 minutes to 35 minutes. That almost did the trick. Next time, I'm going to 40 minutes, and I think I'll have it licked.

I remain of the opinion that once the excessive wetness of the product is conquered, it's the best item of its genre I've ever found on the market.

Another update 

Yep. 40 minutes made it turn out just right. I liked it mucho. I would buy and eat lots more of these, if it weren't for my sense of guilt over the beef. I'll keep their purpose limited to an occasional treat.

Trader Joe's Beef Taquitos

This is the second time I've purchased these, and I like them a lot. I've had taquitos from several other manufacturers before, and they're all OK. But the TJ's version is much bigger and beefier. They cook easily in either microwave or toaster oven. The latter is better because it crisps the shell.

My only complaint is, like most TJ's products, they're a little on the bland side. A quick dip in Sriracha sauce cures that, however.

Will I buy it again? 

Most definitely. In fact, I doubt that I'll ever buy any competing product again. It's not like I'm feasting on these constantly. But three or four times a year, I'd guess, and I think it will always be TJ's from now on.