My actual day job...

My day job ( as opposed to my night job - packing curry kits) is as a illustrator. Well as much illustrating as I can do with limited childcare. I just uploaded these 'doodles' onto a well know image library. 'Food and Drink' is a limitless subject that I could keep drawing and drawing...good thing I adore eating really.

NEW 2012 packaging...

My lovely husband has photographed the new spice / curry kits for his portfolio and for Spice Almighty's online presence. Thankfully I haven't had to pay him a penny for either the packaging design or the amazing set to photos he's just taken....lucky lucky lucky me.

Soon I'll be able to sell them on some well know websites...watch this space.

Marks & Spencer curry kits & curry paste

Last month when browsing for a birthday cake in M&S I found these. There were a few standard curry kits . And a vast array of spice pastes in jars. I really love the retro packaging theme they've got going. But I still feel Spice Almighty's packaging is far more visually captivating and emotive.

The recipes seem easy to follow but I'm not sure about the depth of flavour that could be achieved from the pastes.

I found a Burmese cookbook at last....

Whilst researching ideas for new curry kits I found a Burmese cookbook written in perfect English with wonderful pictures...I got rather giddy with the excitement. Trust me there are very few books on Burmese cooking.

The author is Burmese, who moved to England when she was small like me. WOW there were recipes in here that I hadn't eaten in ages - even my mum was suitably impressed. SOOOO many new ideas for me to try out...noodles, curries, soups. There will be a Burmese curry kit soon- just got to choose a good one.

Lemon grass for SE Asian curry kits

After deciding which new dishes add to the Spice Almighty range I have tracked down several reputable wholesalers. Last year I was soooo pushed for time I was paying through the nose ( not literally...) Cardamom and cloves are damn expensive even though they're tiny.

I was lucky to chance upon the Asian Cookshop who can supply the bulk of my needs. However there was one new ingredient that was proving to be elusive....FREEZE DRIED LEMON GRASS. It took me ages but this week it finally arrived - 1kg of it...thats a lot to Rendang, Laksa and Massaman curry kits !!!

Potential Spice Almighty Inspiration...

It was actually my birthday last month and apart from the usual girly gifts ( smellies/ Cath Kidston) my in-laws gave me something rather good. Its the newly published 'Masterchef everyday' cookbook. It has a great section featuring past contestants and whats they've been up to since. The 130 recipes are all the contestants own - including Celebrity Masterchef like Phil Vickery. And I think one of the best features is Gregg & John's reworking of 20 recipes for everyday folks who can't get hold of monkfish liver.

Linda Lusardi's Malaysian Beef and Potato curry sounds lush- and rather close to the new spice kit 'Magnificent Malaysian Rendang' with star anise and cinnamon. Might have to give her recipe a go...see how it compares.

Spice Almighty NEW flavours NEW packs

I have finally got round to developing the next FAB FOUR 'flavours' in the Spice Almighty spice kit  range.

There was much deliberation as they had to fit within the 'whole and ground spice in lil packs' format. Quite a feat if you know what goes into SE Asian currie. It was a bit of a conundru, and I wasted several little trees worth of paper in the process of writing out methods and recipes.

They will be called

MAGNIFICENT MALAYSIAN RENDANG
BETTER THAN A BIRYANI
TANTALISING THAI MASSAMAN
LOVELY SINGAPORE LAKSA

From the beginning I always imagined a broad mix of curries from all over Asia, not just the Indian continent. And I feel these are much closer to the beloved Burmese curries I grew up with.

Just got to make sure the other half has time to design them.