Fancy a Change? Try Our Keema

Keema

Keema is made with minced meat or – as I make it – with veggie mince (Tesco, Sainsbury’s or Realeat are my faves, I’m not a great fan of Quorn).  You may recognise the name if you’ve ever asked for a Keema Nan in a curry restaurant.

Like all our curries, it’s very easy to make, but a little different. Keema is started off in a pan but then transferred to an oven dish where you let it bake for about 30 mins resulting in a drier than usual curry dish. The resulting mince is perfect to fill samosas or a “curry to” (that’s our curry version of a burrito, BTW) by rolling the meat into a chapati.  You could even make your own Keema nan! This is my sister and brother-in-law’s favourite of all our curries.

If you fancy, you can add extras like peas, chopped potatoes, etc. Use your imagination, the important thing is the fresh spices and the resulting deliciousness.

Our Keema easy peasy curry pack is billed as a medium-heat, but you can easily add more fresh chillis if you want to make it hotter.

If you’ve never tried it, you don’t know what you’re missing. Why not add Keema to your next order and live a little.

Feeling Fluey? Dreaded Man-Flu?! Curry Spices can Help Heal

Spicy foods can make your nose run and eyes water, but they are also great natural decongestants.

So which spices, specifically will help?

Cayenne pepper features in many of our dishes.  It’s a great spice to use in place of black pepper in your everyday cooking too, especially for anyone suffering from Candida, in which case black pepper is ill-advised. Traditional medicine has used capsaicin, the active ingredient in cayenne, for centuries as a pain reliever and to help with circulation and digestive problems and to aid a poor appetite. Although no research has examined foods containing cayenne pepper and flu symptoms, research has found that nasal sprays containing capsaicin may reduce congestion. A 2011 study published in “Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology” found that subjects that used the capsaicin nasal spray over a period of two weeks had less congestion.  We find it preferable to eat our curries rather than snort them, however!

Garlic has frequently been used, though the ages and by many cultures, as a medicine. It contains antioxidants to protect against free radical damage and also is a decongestant. A 2001 study published in “Advances in Therapy” found that subjects that took garlic supplements had fewer colds and enjoyed a faster recovery time.

You’ll also do well to focus on an anti-inflammatory diet when you’re suffering from a cold or flu.  These spices are all anti-inflammatory and we’ve listed and linked to the curry packs that particularly feature each:  Cardamom (Madras); Cloves (Vindaloo); Fennel Seeds (Madras, Patia); Ginger (Jalfrezi); Garlic (Jalfrezi); Nutmeg (Pasanda); Turmeric (in just about everything); Black Pepper (Vindaloo)

Another tip I use that’s meant to kill germs is to place half a raw onion in the room overnight.  You must chop it to expose the raw flesh which is said to kill the germs.  The blacker the onion is by morning, the better it’s said to have done its job.  Sounds odd, and sleeping with the smell of onion takes a little getting used to, but if it means a swifter end to the dreaded “man flu”, it’s worth it.

Of course, you could go the more pleasant route back to health and use the illness as an excuse to over-indulge on some particularly spicy curries.  If you’re the patient AND the cook, the last thing you want is to be spending hours in the kitchen.  Good thing, then, that our curry packs have such short preparation and cooking times.  We didn’t call them “easy peasy curries” for the good of our health.

February Sale Coming

Watch out for our big February sale where we’ll be offering 10% off your total curry order for all orders placed between 1st & 28th February.

Great to stock up as we have long use by dates on all our fresh curry spice packs.

Yum!

Treat Your Valentine to a Lovey Dovey Curry Gift Box

Lovey Dovey Gift Box

Can you believe it, we’re into February already?  That’s 1/12th of the year gone!  Those old Roman dudes were right, tempus does indeed fugit!

February is, allegedly, the month for lovers.  The month when the wooing takes place in preparation of the coming of Spring when, rumour has it, a young man’s fancy finally gets dragged away from football, fishing and Facebook (although I’ve yet to see any evidence of it in MY house!).

On 14 February, we’ve got Valentine’s Day to keep card manufacturers in business… oops, I meant to celebrate, of course.

Last year, it came as no surprise to us to find that the majority of our beautiful Lovey Dovey Gift Boxes were bought by women.  We can only assume the old adage “The way to a man’s heart is through is stomach” holds true.

So now’s the time to act if you plan to treat your beloved to one of our specially packaged Valentine’s Curry Gift Boxes for a thoughtful and different pressie this year.

Our gift boxes come in large and small sizes and feature black bases with either a silver or gold lid, beautifully (and lovingly) wrapped in real redsatin ribbon.  Complete with red inner packaging (amongst which your selection of curries will nestle), finished with a red, heart-shaped gift tag on which you can declare your lurve.

Simply choose the size and colour of valentine’s gift box and then select the 4 (small box) or 8 (large box) curries to go inside it.  You can choose from the likes of Cherubic Chashni, Pouting Patia, Cuddly Korma, Sexy Saag Aloo orVivacious Vindaloo.**

(**OK, so I embellished the names a little just to get you in the mood)

And if you plan to cook a special meal, what better than a HOT STEAMY CURRY.  Although we’ve never tried Oyster curry, our Ravishing Red Thaicertainly benefits from a dash of oyster (or fish) sauce.

If your loved one is absent, no doubt making the heart grow fonder, we’ll happily ship your package direct and we’ll write your message on the tag for you (remember to write in the comments box what you’d like us to say)… EASY PEASY!

Lambs Larder, Bells Yew Green – New Stockist

Visit us at the Nairn Show, Sat 30 July

We’re delighted to let you know that Spice of Life will have an Easy Peasy Curry stand in the Food Fair Section of the Nairn Show – http://www.nairnshow.org.uk/ on Saturday, 30 July.

Yes, we’ll be there alongside the Pipe Bands, Cheerleader Displays, Show Jumping and even Helicopter Rides.  There are also lots of really interesting-sounding charity stalls such as 2 Wit 2 Woo Owl & Raptor Rescue – Wow!

The showground can be found at Kinnudie Farm, Auldearn, 1 mile East of Nairn, just off the A96 – http://www.nairnshow.org.uk/location

At our stand we’ll have some curries bubbling away for you to sample and you can purchase your curry packs with no postage to pay. We’ll even have a special offer available at the show.

Even better is that you’ll be able to see us doing our Fanny Craddock & Johnny (showing our age) bit when we give a cookery demonstration at 1.30pm. Of course, anyone who’s already cooked our curries will know that it’ll be a pretty short demo because our curries are so quick and easy to cook! Because of this, we’ll probably have to pad out our time with a little song & dance and possibly the odd joke or two, so it should prove interesting.

See you there!!

Our Curries Now Available in Switzerland & France

Yes indeed, courtesy of our latest stockist : Jim’s British Market in St Genis-Pouilly, residents in the Ain region of France and over the border in west Switzerland can now purchase The Spice of Life’s proper, authentic curry mixes.

This part of the world isn’t renowned for serving curry with a kick. In fact, last time I visited an Indian restaurant in Ferney-Voltaire, France, and ordered a Vindaloo, it barely tipped the scales at “a bit spicy”!  It was a far cry from what we Brits are used to.

Along with HP sauce, PG tips, Marmite and Heinz Baked Beans, curry ingredients – if they’re available at all in this region – occupy the “UK Foods” section in the supermarket, so it made sense to find a British shop as our regional stockist.

We’re delighted, therefore, to be supplying Jim’s British Market, based at:

147 Rue du Mont Rond, Espace de l’Allondon, 01630 St Genis-Pouilly, France

Jim's British Market

Tel:  +33(0)450 420 418

Opening hours are:

Wed, Thurs, Fri – 10am – 7pm
Saturday – 10am – 5pm
Sunday – 11am – 1pm
Mon, Tues – closed

Jim’s – run by Jim & Margaret – has been supplying the ex-pat community for 15 years.

As well as the shop, there’s a great tea room which serves a full english, fish & chips and even cream teas.  And you can watch Sky TV at the same time!

We look forward to an ongoing spicy relationship with Jim’s and hope to bring you news of more overseas stockists soon.  In fact, if you’re an ex-pat or if you holiday somewhere and know of a similar shop we should be supplying, let us know:

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How to Cook Perfect Pilau Rice

We’ve all been there.

And it’s usually when it’s a special occasion and we desperately want everything to be perfect.

Your curry’s bubbling nicely, filling the kitchen with an authentic aroma (must be using one of our Easy Peasy Curry Mixes!).  You even remembered to warm the plates and the nan bread and now – the moment of truth – you tip the rice onto the plate and it comes out in one, glued-together, lump.  Well, not quite, there’s still a large portion of it stuck to the bottom of the pan just to give you something to do when you scrape it off later.

Fear not, those days are gone.  Here is, in fact, the recipe for perfect rice every time.

Step 1

Measure out – in volume – the amount of rice you need, remembering that we mostly over-estimate.  (Besides which, if you follow this method to the letter, you’ll find you won’t need as much rice because it will fluff up so much.)

Step 2

Rinse the rice well under cold running water and leave to soak in a pan of fresh, cold water.  Soak for at least 30 minutes.

Step 3

Measure TWICE the amount of water compared with the amount of rice, e.g. 1 cup rice = 2 cups water and bring to the boil.  Add salt or a teaspoon of our tasty Pilau Rice Seasoning Mix to the water.

Step 3

Rinse the rice again and tip it into the pan of boiling water.  Turn the heat down to simmer and cover the pan.  Make sure the water doesn’t boil over but that it continues to bubble.

Step 4

After about 5 minutes, stir the rice ONCE.  Replace the lid and continue to cook for approximately a further 5 minutes until all the water has been absorbed.  You can remove the cover for the last couple of minutes of cooking time.

Step 5

Fluff up the rice and serve.  There should be no water left to tip out of the pan.

The mistake so many people make is that they continually stir the rice which breaks down the starch, causing it to stick together.  To cook rice well, you must resist this urge and control the temperature closely so that the rice has time to cook gently and absorbe all the water without sticking to the pan.

Step 6

Enjoy!

The Good Food Van!

If you live in or around Inverness you may have seen this van doing its rounds.  Its the Good Food Van and owned by the very friendly and helpful Gavin.  He stocks a good selection of our curries and, as he’s a huge curry fan himself, he is able to give his customers personal recommendations!  Gavin and his Good Food Van go  round to various offices and homes in Inverness and the surrounding areas selling a whole range of award winning FRESH local produce, from meat, fish, bread, cheese, potatoes, all vac packed, to our Spice of Life Easy Peasy Curries!  No minimum purchase and FREE delivery!

January Sale on Easy Peasy Curries

Of course we’re jumping on the bandwagon and lifting your spirits with a January sale.  For the month of January you can enjoy a massive 33% OFF four of our popular curries.

Nayiaza: (pictured) a medium-spiced tomato & coconut curry containing NO onions and NO oil – NOW ONLY £1.17

Nayiaza Curry

Tandoori: an easy version of an eternal favourite – NOW ONLY £1.17

Saag Aloo: a classic side dish of spinach & potato – NOW ONLY £1

Kidz Curry: a mild, tasty introductory dish for young ‘uns or to ease adults into the wonderful world of curry – NOW ONLY £1

Visit the site now and take advantage of our FLAT RATE postage (no matter how big your order), speedy delivery, excellent customer service and, of course, our fabulous curries which taste just like your Indian Grandma makes ’em!