Black pepper & and the Age of Discovery

Last week I caught half of 'Michael Wood -The Story of India -Spice Routes and Silk Roads' He made it sound so romantic about the discovery of the western monsoon opening a sea route for Greeks and Romans with southern India. Most people may have forgotten one of the reasons for the early voyages of discovery...BLACK PEPPER. They were crazy for this simple vine...which became known as 'black gold'

The race for the coveted spices from Indian sub continent, and the Spice Islands of Indonesia was fought by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and the English. And its also really a history of colonialism...sad but true.

However this did lead to some quite fantastic new flavours being passed around these trade routes. Most notable being the chilli pepper. Finding its way from South America to India and even as far away as Korea and the Cook Islands. I adore this subject and have numerous books on the subject, amongst all my cook books.  I simple can't imagine life without my spices...

So simple...range

These are the other 'So Simple...' packs that I'm introducing. Again I'm hoping they are very easy to cook, even for the novice chef. All the spices, whole and ground are included in each pack, so very little measuring out apart from rice or lentils.

Depending on how well they are received, I will be adding more to this range.

WOW a brilliant book on BURMESE FOOD

I have been waiting for ' Burma - Rivers of Flavour' by Naomi Duguid to be published for ages. Heck I'd even pre-ordered it from Amazon. I have not been disappointed. Its a mix between a cookbook and travel log, with brilliant photography. Soooo much information about little daily rituals and personal observations.

She has traveled extensively and  gone to some of the more remote regions to gain further understanding of the diverse Burmese cuisine. There are chapters on a myriad rice, noodle, and salad dishes. An absolute delight.

Easy peasy Onion Bhaji's or pakoras

I had lots of fun researching recipes for ONION BHAJI's. Gram flour is making an appearance on supermarket shelves but its difficult to find good quality versions.I wanted a Spice Almighty kit to be really super easy to make as they are part of my 'So Simple...' range ( more on that later) Each pack contains premixed gram flour and spices so there is very little measuring.  Simply empty the bhaji mix into a large bowl add water, add two sliced onions, salt to taste and fry.

I was at a school pamper evening where I had little samples for the ladies to try - I think it was a thumbs up from almost everyone. And they where so surprised at how easy it sounded. I didn't really know how well the Bhaji mix would be received...but I SOLD OUT!!

Also I mentioned to a few people the mix could also be used for pakora, using spinach, cauliflower, even potato or chilli (!) I shall try out a few of these in future.

Goodies from the Oriental cash & carry...

OK its been a while - the Hoo Hing in Enfield is like an Alladins cave for me. All the rows of weird and wonderful ingredients from Asia that I would have no idea what to do with.

I did find these which I'm going to try out over the next week. The soups (tom yum & tom ka ) seems pretty quick to make but do contain some ingredients that don't sound very Thai lets say...

And I've never ever tried a Yellow curry so looking forward to that. There might even be a new spice kit in the making.

SUMMER IS SURELY COMING...get the barbie out

I have just come up with some Bar-B-Q marinades... they where tested out on Jubilee weekend. All of got positive feedback so...they're good to go. We have Tandoori which will be mixed with yogurt. Chines 5 Spice which is sweet and tangy, and can be used on chicken or pork. And Satay which has optional peanut butter for a authentic taste. I'll post some photos of the finished packs asap.

I'm selling on EBAY...

OK its been a long time coming but I have finally put my curry kits on eBAY. I'm just using their basic layout so its a bit limited but at least they are out there. I have cunning ways of getting them higher up in the listings so Spice Almighty is up there with the big boys.

I've included a photo of the sachets so buyers realise my curry kits are not standard bags of 'curry powder'