Not sure if anyone else uses them or not, but I just thought I would give a massive shout out for the Shan curry spice packs http://www.shanfoods.com/index.aspx
They look like this:
Call it cheating if you're enough of a pedant to do so, but each pack contains the perfect amount of spices for each curry that you want to make, for up to 4 people. No fake pastes, no jars of pre-made sauce... just all the ingredients needed to make your own curry. And they taste chuffing fabulous.
My personal favourite is Rogan Josh, but with every pack ive used ive made a curry that looks like it just stepped of the plane, and tastes miles better than just about anything i've had in a take-away. For most of my curries I use the following base:
Ingredients:
To cook:
While people will undoubtedly have more refined methods, that's my favourite "quick and dirty" way of making a decent curry, and these spices packs really have made life a shedload easier.
Oh, and the best bit? Less than £1 from either your local Indian shop, or an online shop like Spices of India http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?SS=shan&ACTION=Go&PR=-1&TB=A&SHOP=
Guaranteed to make a yummy curry every time... give them a try if you want to cook some authentic-tasting Indian food but are a bit daunted by what ingredients you need to buy and how much to use.
They look like this:
Call it cheating if you're enough of a pedant to do so, but each pack contains the perfect amount of spices for each curry that you want to make, for up to 4 people. No fake pastes, no jars of pre-made sauce... just all the ingredients needed to make your own curry. And they taste chuffing fabulous.
My personal favourite is Rogan Josh, but with every pack ive used ive made a curry that looks like it just stepped of the plane, and tastes miles better than just about anything i've had in a take-away. For most of my curries I use the following base:
Ingredients:
- 500g diced chicken or lamb
- 2x tomatoes, chopped coarsely using a blender
- 3x onions, chopped very fine using a blender
- 4x large cloves of garlic, chopped very fine using a blender
- 2x red or green chillis, chopped very fine using a blender
- 1x Shan spice pack (usually Rogan Josh, Madras, Jalfrezi or Butter
- A dash of half cream
- 50ml-100ml yoghurt
To cook:
- Bung the onion and garlic into a pan with some oil and fry until the onions go clear and soft.
- Add a little more oil and then the Shan spice pack, mixing in the spices so that the whole thing goes into a thick paste.
- Chuck in the meat and fry it until it is around half-cooked.
- Add a normal-sized cup of water and stir it up, add tomatoes, then simmer on medium for 20 mins until most of the excess water has boiled off, and the mixture is then thicker.
- Add cream and yoghurt to taste (I only use a dash of each).
- Cook for a further 5 mins then serve with whatever style rice you favour.
While people will undoubtedly have more refined methods, that's my favourite "quick and dirty" way of making a decent curry, and these spices packs really have made life a shedload easier.
Oh, and the best bit? Less than £1 from either your local Indian shop, or an online shop like Spices of India http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?SS=shan&ACTION=Go&PR=-1&TB=A&SHOP=
Guaranteed to make a yummy curry every time... give them a try if you want to cook some authentic-tasting Indian food but are a bit daunted by what ingredients you need to buy and how much to use.
Last edited:
