Masala Dabba - Indian Spice Tin

I love spices and try to acquire spices from every corner of the world in which I attempt to cook from. Usually, I buy a lot of different spices during my trips, like Ras el Hanut from Morocco or the 7 Spice mix and Kebab mix from Kurdistan. During my cooking I always use spices, other than salt and pepper, as to my taste I find it bland to just use these basic seasoning elements. The most frequent spices that I use, other than salt and pepper, are usually paprika powder, dried parsley and garlic powder. 

Masala Dabba

To my delight, I have discovered the Masala Dabba. This is a around stainless steal Indian spice tin with 7 small inner pots which is used to store 7 different spices in one place. When me and husband went to Southall few weeks ago, I saw this spice tin and decided to buy one for me as I love to cook Indian food and would love to have those spices that I use often in one place, to save time and space. If you use a set of spices quite often, this spice tin is excellent to use as you don't have to open up several jars to season your food. You simply have your masala dabba handy and take a little from each spice pot. 

Most Indian household will have one of these spice tins storing their most commonly used spices. Now I am sure that every Indian household will have their own special set of spices in their Masala Dabba and when reading about them, I found that you can use it to store almost anything you like; different spice mixes, whole leaves or whole or ground spices. The most used set of spices that I found online included: coriander, cumin, chilli, garam masala mix, turmeric, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cardamon and mustard seeds. I think this is an excellent gift to somebody who loves cooking and like to experiment with different spices. I have previously given away spice racks which included different spices to friends and family and they were very appreciated gifts. Therefore, I definitely would recommend one of these Masala Dabba in your kitchen.

My Masala Dabba includes the spices that I use the most in my Indian cooking as well as when I cook other cuisines. These spices are: Garic powder, turmeric powder, a mix of cumin and coriander powder, fenugreek powder, garam masala, ground ginger and mustard seeds. 

I just used it to make my lovely tikka masala, time to go and serve!

Loyd Grossman's Korma with Chicken - Recipe and Review

Loyd's Korma

Although cooking is a passion of mine, I do sometimes find it hard to find inspiration or rather time to find recipes and get new ideas for cooking during weekdays. Sometimes you want real comfort food that may take hours to cook a Wednesday evening when you come home from work, but just cant find the motivation or the energy to cook a meal from scratch. Therefore, it is clever to have few shortcuts that you can use in your cooking once in a while. 

My whole family love curries and we can eat it often, however, it does require some time and effort as well as motivation to go through the several steps to cook a really nice curry. Let's just face it, we don't have that in the middle of the week. That is when Loyd Grossman (LG) comes into the picture. Or at least, his curry sauces! 

LG is one of my favorite sauce brand which I often use in my daily cooking, when I need a good quality sauce. When I see them on sale, I definitely stack up a few jars of curries and pasta sauces. I have compared LG sauces with a few other brands, and I always like these best and prefer them over other brands. This korma sauce is very mild and has a sweet and velvety taste.

When you think of curries, you might think of hot and spicy as well as different spice flavors such as curry,  fiery chillies, pepper, garlic and ginger. This korma sauce is on the opposite side of the spectrum and is rather sweet and mild, which is sometimes exactly what you need. The mild, creamy coconut flavor is delicious and combined with few vegetables, it gives you a velvety and rich dinner when served with rise. To me, a ready made sauce needs to be rich in flavor, taste like it is home made and not have an artificial taste, and this LG korma sauce fulfills these requirements. Therefore I recommend this sauce, when you want quick and easy Indian korma sauce.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 jar Loyd Grossman Korma, 350 g

2 chicken breast, diced

2 tbsp vegetable oil.

1/2 cup of different vegetables such as: yellow paprika, peas, zucchini, carrots, spring onions (But you can use whatever you have on hand)

Roasted almond flakes

For a vegetarian dish, leave out the chicken.

Additional spices: 1/2 tsp of mild curry, salt, fenugreek, garlic and ground ginger

Method:

1- Wash and dice your chicken into bite size pieces. Wash and dice what ever vegetables you will use as well. I cut the paprika, zucchini, carrots and spring onion in 1 cm pieces.

2- In a deep frying pan, add the vegetable oil and let it heat up on high heat. Add the chicken and brown a little. Add the additional spices and mix well. I did this, so that the chicken pieces are not bland and has a nice coating of Indian spices. But can be completely skipped.

3- After the chicken pieced have become golden brown add the vegetables and salt it if needed. Mix well and let it cook for about 10-15 minutes. Add the Korma sauce and make sure to rinse the jar with 1/2 cup of water, shake well and pour it into the pan as well, to be sure that you use up every drop of the sauce in the jar.

4- Let the curry come to a firm boil and then bring down the heat to low to medium heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes until the added water has reduced and you have a thick and creamy sauce.

5- Serve the Korma sauce together with Basmati rice. I usually use the Tilda rice brand.

Finish off by sprinkling some roasted almond flakes over. This is a substitute to cashew nuts, which is common in a Korma curry according to different recipes I found online.

Enjoy!

Indian Chicken Curry - Recipe

Curries are a great way to spice up the supper time, whether it is a chicken tikka masala or a red thai curry. Now, I love both Thai curries as well as Indian curries. For today's meal, I decided to make a Indian curry. My main inspiration for this dish is the youtube clip below. The man who is cooking this dish in the youtube clip is an Indian chef and he is really funny to watch. I've watched a number of his youtube clips of how he cooks the Indian dishes, especially curries and they are all so easy to follow. His clips are very uninformative but easy to learn from as he is so relaxed in his cooking and seem to make the dishes so easy and effortlessly. Will def try out more of his recipes.

Other recipes of various type of curries that I've tried come from the recipe collection on bbc's recipe website.

The ingredients fro this curry:

2 can of chopped tomatoes, 200 grams each

1 green paprika, chopped

1 cup of assorted frosen veggies ( peas, sweetcorn, carrots, red paprika) 

3 chicken breast, diced (in the youtube clip below he uses big pieces of chicken but I like to used diced thighs or chicken breast instead)

1/2 cup of yogurt

1 cuo of water

2 tablespoon of vegetable oil

rise

Spices: 

1/2 teaspoon of: hot paprika, cumin, coriander, ginger & garlic powder, black pepper, salt, garam masala, turmeric, bay leaf, fenugreek, black mustard seed and mild curry powder. (In the clip, he uses whole seeds to roast and then grind, but I simply use the ground version of the above mentioned spices).

Process:

1- Start by putting the diced chicken breast in a pot and cover it over medium heat so that the chicken breast gets steamed in its own juices. Then remove the lid so that the liquid from the chicken evaporate. Add the oil and brown the chicken breast.

2- Add all the veggies and fry for few minutes on medium heat until the mix get a little color. Then add all the spices and let it fry for few minutes. Add the tomatoes and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. If it is to dry after 15 minutes add the water as well and let it all cook trough. I added yogurt the last 5-10 minutes, to give the curry a mild and round taste and let it simmer so that all the spices have mixed well and chicken is cooked through.

I served the curry with basmati rise. It tasted heavenly. 

The clip below is my inspiration for the chicken curry I made this time.

Enjoy!