Monday 15 October 2012

The Spice Tailor curry sauces from Anjum Anand - a review


I'm ashamed to say that National Curry Week passed me by last week, without me hearing anything about it, so this week I'm making up for it by cooking three different vegetarian curries using three of the new curry sauces from The Spice Tailor. I regularly cook curries from scratch, so I was surprised to read that a recent survey by The Spice Tailor, found that despite tikka masala being Britain's favourite curry, only 25% of us have ever tried cooking it at home.

Celebrity chef Anjum Anand has develop her own range of sauces which makes cooking a curry at home, faster than ordering one from the take-away! There are seven sauces in the range, most of which come with a sachet of dried spices, a base sauce and a curry sauce. Recipe tips and suggestions for extra ingredients are included, but basically you fry the dried spices (with or without the optional dried chilli) in a drop of vegetable oil, then add your choice of paneer, pulses and/or vegetables (or meat/fish, if you're not vegetarian!), followed by the base sauce. After a couple of minutes, you add the curry sauce and leave to simmer for about 8 minutes.


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I tried out three of the sauces: the Tikka Masala (which I added paneer and mushrooms to), the Punjabi Tomato (with added chickpeas and aubergine) and finally the Spiced Spinach (with added potatoes and green pepper). I pre-cooked all of the vegetables, except the mushrooms, before adding them to the curry sauces, as I knew that they wouldn't cook through in 8 minutes, however paneer, tinned pulses and meat substitutes such as Quorn would all work well and cook in the stated time if you were in a hurry. I added the whole chilli to all of my curries and fished it out before serving...we're all used to eating medium curries and I would say, even with the added chilli, all of the curries were on the milder side of medium. Some of the other whole spices needed removing before serving too, such as the whole cardamom pods and the curry leaf. You could, of course, leave them in and play 'find the spices' at the dinner table with the family!

Each of the curries looked and tasted very different from each other and the smell in my house was amazing! We all like the flavour of the Punjabi Tomato curry best, followed by the Tikka Masala. A word of warning though...the Tikka Masala didn't taste anything like a British restaurant tikka massala; it tasted strongly of cardamom and wasn't sweet and creamy. Not a criticism, as it tasted very aromatic, just not how I expected it to taste! The Spiced Spinach curry was our least favourite as it tasted a little bitter and the spinach flavour dominated the dish. I would have preferred to add fresh spinach instead. I found the sauces very simple to use, and good value for money. Although each sauce was supposed to serve two, I found that by adding extra vegetables and pulses, each one made a curry big enough to feed my family of four.
If you want more tips on cooking curries at home, tune in to Cookalong with Anjum on ‘Spice Nights’, when Anjum will be showing how to cook simple and delicious Indian dishes in just 15 minutes, using some cheats and lots of scratch cooking.  Spice Nights airs weekly on Tuesday evenings at 7.30 pm from now until 6th November. Register to watch at www.thespicetailor.com.

The Spice Tailor range is now available to buy online at www.thespicetailor.com and in Waitrose stores.

Integrity Statement
I received 3 Spice Tailor curry sauces to review and 3 to give away on my blog. I did not receive payment, and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself and my family. Pack images courtesy of The Spice Tailor.

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128 comments:

  1. Jhinga Korma! Prawns in a spicy yogurt sauce. Normally made with lamb.

    xannalbrownx@gmail.com

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  2. Chicken korma as I don't really like a hot curry, I like to eat it with pashwari naan bread and rice!

    lynbrennan64@gmail.com

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  3. I love vegetable rogan josh, but I have had so few curries that I could well be missing out on what will end up being my favourite curry ever! If I make them at home I use jarred sauce, which feels like cheating.

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  4. i love rogan josh x
    @ashlallan

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  5. The Keralan Coconut Curry is always a winner.

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  6. John Taggart16/10/12 10:07 am

    Chiken Tikka Masala

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  7. Lamb Dhansak

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  8. I love all kinds of chicken curries but my favourite is chicken biriani.

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  9. Prawn curry!!

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  10. Hooked on garlic chicken at the moment.

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  11. channa sag chickpeas and spinach

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  12. I love all types of curry, mt absolute favourite has to be Rogan Josh.

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  13. kylie johnson17/10/12 10:22 am

    Love a vegetable rogan josh :)

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  14. My favourite is chicken korai/karai - Janet Bagnall (bagnalljan@gmail.com)

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  15. Chicken Korma - don't like anything too hot.

    Hazel Rea - @beachrambler

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  16. I love Dhansak. k.mayhead@btinternet.com

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  17. fiona waterworth17/10/12 10:24 pm

    rogan josh

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  18. butter chicken or chicken saag

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  19. tracey gibbons18/10/12 1:43 pm

    favourite curry is a lamb pathia

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  20. half chicken half king prawn peas mushrooms no onions

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  21. Love anything with spinach!!!

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  22. Chicken tikka biryani,yum!!

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    Replies
    1. BTW I love your blog name,my nephew has just started school and he has been told to tell everyone ''No food with a face'' at lunch time.

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  23. saag paneer is a favourite - I've just learned how to make home made paneer, so this is having heavy rotation in the house at the moment!

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  24. Lucy J Morgan21/10/12 11:21 am

    Tikka Masala :)

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  25. The traditional Tikka Masala!

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  26. Ann Willers22/10/12 7:22 pm

    Coconut prawn curry

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  27. A good old lamb dansak. Mmmmm

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  28. chicken rogan josh for me as rogan josh seems to be one of the healthier choices of curry

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  29. I love a chicken bhuna!

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  30. chicken korma

    greig spencer

    greigspencer@live.co.uk

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  31. Gary Topley27/10/12 9:30 am

    Chicken Madras is my favourite

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  32. Aubergine and caulifower balti

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  33. Catherine McAlinden27/10/12 11:40 am

    Vegetable korma

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  34. I like a Madras, but have tried the Keralan curry and loved it

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  35. Emily Fowler27/10/12 4:29 pm

    Palak paneer, I'd never actually tried paneer until I went to India earlier this year and now it's my favourite!

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  36. chicken korma x

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  37. chicken korma

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  38. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  39. I love Patia's - sweet and savoury - mmmmmmm

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  40. I love a Chicken Tikka Masala, just the right amount of spice for me.

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  41. Morrisons Own Brand Curry Sauce - its about 30p a jar but is gorgeous, tastes like original chip shop curry. Turkey, Chicken, Pork, Beef and Peas with the sauce - its GORG :)

    Becci Cleary/Rebecca Cleary/Beccicleary87

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  42. Paul Jackson27/10/12 9:40 pm

    lamb madras

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  43. chicken korma

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  44. maxime goodwin28/10/12 8:19 am

    Jalfresi!! :)

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  45. I love home-made dupiaza with Quorn and lots of onions and peppers, mmm! :)

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  46. any veggie curry

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  47. holly foxwell28/10/12 1:47 pm

    prawn and vegetable korma

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  48. James Gordon28/10/12 2:30 pm

    Any medium hot curry or mild for my son who's a bit of a whimp. :-)

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  49. I'm boring - I love chicken Madras

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  50. I like hot curries. My favourite is my homemade Vegetable Madras which is lovely (even though I say it myself lol.) I also do a milder Korma sometimes with Butter Beans, Pineapple and Coconut.

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  51. I like a creamy caulifower korma

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  52. My hubby's veggie rogan josh is gorgeous!

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  53. chicken tikka masala

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  54. I'm not vegetarian but I do love Saag Aloo always my first choice of Indian curry :)

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  55. Julie Paton28/10/12 7:27 pm

    anything sizzling - Karahi

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  56. Spinach and chickpea balti.

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  57. My favourite curry is chicken madras.

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  58. I love lamb korma, I also met Anjum Anand at cookery school and she is amazing. good luck to everybody.

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  59. Dave Edwards28/10/12 9:23 pm

    A Bengal Chicken Masala with lots of cheese!!

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  61. My fave is Thai Green curry

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  62. chicken achari, yummy :)

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  63. Lamb and Lentil Dahl yummy!

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  64. Lamb Rogan Josh

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  65. I love Jalfrezi

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  66. Vegetable dansak

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  67. chicken korma, yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy

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  68. I adore chicken korma. lip smackingly good. I'm fancying one right now!

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  69. chicken korma for me everytime

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  70. Chicken rogan

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  71. love a Tikka Masala :-)

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  72. all curries are great I love creamy passanda and bomba aloo ooh and dopiaza not to forget all the lovely nibbley bits ;0)

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  73. butter chicken or chicken shehzani

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  75. A Keralan coconut curry with lots of sultanas and chickpeas

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  76. I love Jalfrezi with intense onion and tomato flavours.

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  77. Chicken Jalfrezi is my favourite curry

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  78. chicken in butter sauce--incredible!

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  79. I like chicken korma :) and jalfrezzi nom nom nom

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  80. Tikka Masala

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  81. Just love Chicken Kormas!

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