For me, life’s been pretty good lately. But, sadly, the same cannot be said for our last few sauces. Since, as much as I liked the taste of rocoto in The Wicked Chilli’s Roco Loco, it still didn’t express the pepper’s unique heat as well as I’d hoped. And the other two that I tried these last couple of weeks were similarly disappointing.
So, this time around, I think I’m going to play it safe with a company who’ve already really impressed me once before: Balefire.
We saw their Get Schwifty a while back and, aside from the name, I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of that sauce. So, today, I’m going to take a look at two more in the hopes that their Tortuga and Critical Masala are just as stunning.
Hey folks, it’s that time of year again. The first thursday of september, on which I write my yearly homage to the Hot Ones YouTube show, designed to give you all an alternative and far more UK-friendly version of their ten sauce line-up.
Last year, I went a little off the rails with the most out there product selection that I could but, for today’s fifth round, I want to be a tiny bit more down to earth. To still pull a whole host of delicious finds from out of my review catalogue, yet also stick a little closer to the real show and bring back a few old favourite producers, in the process.
So, with that in mind, I’m going to kick things off with one of my all time favourite companies and see how things go from there.
Hello again, everyone. Today, we’re looking at a brand new addition to my sidebar. Another company who’ve sent me something free to feature. And, this time, it’s not a sauce.
It’s a pair of curry kits, containing all of the necessary spices for two full meals and their sides:
Two of the most popular products from The Spice Sultan – Their Thai Yellow and Sri Lankan Coconut & Lime flavours. Both tangy, coconut-forward curry styles, based on authentic spice blends from the founder’s asian backpacking adventures.
I’ve just got the one product for you, this time, but it’s the long awaited third and final Haskhell’s sauce and I’ve saved their best for last. Or at least their most popular:
This is their pineapple curry and, aside from having a two word name, its label looks identical to Haskhell’sothers. Yet that warm, golden, yellowy-brown, around its edges, sets it apart from the rest of the range. As well as almost anything else that I’ve ever had.
It’s a unique, beautiful and enticing shade, when seen through the sides of the bottle. But how is it when it’s not behind glass?
So it’s finally happened, folks. The day that I’ve been dreading. The one where, despite my best efforts, all of my time in quarantine finally takes its toll and I lose track of the passing of days.
This post was supposed to be up last weekend, for the end of february, but the date escaped me and I genuinely thought that I had another week to finish it. I’m really sorry that things didn’t go to plan but I guess that you’re getting two big recipes this month.
So, without further ado, here’s my latest curry:
And this one’s something quite unique, since it’s not the north indian cuisine that we’re used to, here in the UK, but something from the south. As well as being a dish that, despite containing chilli, gets far more of its heat and flavour from black pepper.
It’s called a chettinad and it tastes absolutely nothing like what we tried last tuesday. Despite both being classified as indian cuisine.
This week, everyone, I’d like to bring back a style of product that we haven’t seen in a long while: An exclusively cooking sauce.
An item type that I don’t often use in my daily life and, when I do, it’s usually just to amp up a left over stew. So, while I found Mahi’sthreemarinades pleasant enough, it takes a lot for me to actually go out and buy such a product. Something a little bit more exciting, like Mr. Vikki’s Keswick Market Curry Sauce.
Hey folks, welcome to november! I know that national curry week was last month but I just so happened to come into a whole load of bananas and coconut, recently. Inspiring me to look into one of my mother’s favourite curries: The kashmiri.
A sweet, creamy, fruit-based curry from exactly the region that its name implies.
So it was a simple prospect: Research a real kashmiri, put my own little twist on it and, if all went smoothly, write up my results for all of you. Easy content, right? Well, not exactly
As it turns out, an authentic kashmiri curry is based around mangoes and lychees, not bananas. Still fruity, yet very different from what I had in mind.
So, while today’s dish does take a little inspiration from it, in its spices, it also draws upon the malayan and a whole host of more keralan meals, in order to form a truly delightful, caramelised fruit curry with neither an official name, nor any specific region to call its own.
A pan-indian fusion, if you will, which gets its mild heat from a blend of rich and raisin-like, mexican chillies, in order to best complement the banana without adding any extra sweetness. Because, if I’m going off-script already, I might as well go the whole hog.
There’s nothing traditional about today’s recipe but I’m eager to share it, all the same. It’s too good not to.
Hey folks, today’s going to be a bit of a weird one.
You see, I’m celebrating international chocolate day, for the very last time, but it’s also the end of national curry week. The same bizarre blend of food holidays that we saw in twenty eighteen but, this time around, it falls on a tuesday.
So, instead of a recipe, I’m bringing you a thematic review. Or two, since I have nothing on hand to match both celebrations and haven’t had since Monteƶuma’s satay bar.
That said, though, I still think I’ve got some pretty exciting products to share with you today:
Fire Foods’ Tandoori Butter and The Chilli Alchemist’s Dark Matter chocolate.
One’s a blend of indian spices with a peanut butter base and the other’s a seventy percent dark chocolate with mint and popping candy, in tribute to the Alchemist’s Melliculus range. The first thing to come from the brand since Russell, of Grim Reaper Foods, took over.
Though it’s taken me a little while to get to it, because I wanted to hold off on writing about this one until its second batch.
I’ll explain why that is and why I won’t be celebrating international chocolate day again in my main post but first, I want to quickly mention the one thing that links today’s two products: Their use of ghost pepper.
Probably not a tonne of it, judging by everything else that I’ve had from Fire Foods and the Grim Reaper. Just enough to provide a pleasant, medium warmth and maybe some of that delicious, full-bodied, red chilli flavour.
Happy national curry week, everyone! It’s back around again and, oncemore, I really wanted to put together a topical recipe for the occasion.
But I also wanted it to be a bit different to myothercurryrecipes and, after a little deliberation, I figured that it’d be fun to try out something from one of my favourite producers – Daddy Cool’s.
Now, this little dish of his isn’t the main event. It’s not strictly a curry but it’s a pleasant side, made using his gorgeous Okra and Garlic Pickle, to carry its delicious flavour through these light potato and cauliflower bites:
A particularly delightful addition to your curry platter, if not a delightful recipe to follow.
Hey folks, it’s the last weekend of the month and, as always, that means that it’s recipe time. For july, though, I felt like going quite a bit hotter than usual and making something with trinidad scorpion.
Why? I’m honestly not sure.
Perhaps being cooped up indoors has got me craving some excitement in my life. Perhaps I’m in the mood for some fiery, acidic flavour. Or perhaps it was simply the desire to see a new number on my recipe page.
Whatever the case may be, I felt like half-arsing a phaal, this month. Making a simple, flavourful and at least semi-faithful recreation of a superhot, british curry, without all the effort involved in the real dish.
One which utilised my old shakshuka recipe as a starting point, in order to do away with the need for fresh ingredients and use only store cupboard essentials.
Well, so long as you, like me, consider indian spices and dried superhot chillies essential…
Spicefreak 