Who'd have thought?

  Yesterday's shopping trip for tonight's Diwali festival was in my favourite Indian supermarket on Brick lane, Taj stores.  For a street with lots of relatively small premises, it's real whopper and full of an insane variety of goodies, many of which I am totally unfamiliar with. This was one which made me chuckle because of the spelling.

  Wanting to leave no stone unturned, and because I wanted to find out more about what it had to do with the Coca-cola corp, I had a little look online. It turns out it's the market leader in India. Coke bought it because it was an easier way to dominate pepsi in India. (Check out the wiki page for more info if you're interested).

  Back to the story though. One of the reasons I love Taj stores is the ridiculous range of spices. It's a great place to get whatever spices you want as well as discover new ones, (as well as other ingredients), and the folk who work there are really happy to offer advice on how to use them. Here's a glimpse of a few of their spices.

  This may seem obvious, but adding flavour makes a real difference to the food you're cooking and getting practice in will increase your confidence. This applies to all cooking, not just Indian cuisine. If you think you're a bit timid when it comes to experimenting in the kitchen then this may help. 

  Firstly, don't be shy. Ask advice or have a look in recipe books for a bit of inspiration. Once you're ready to add your new herb or spice, do it gradually. You can always keep adding a bit more until you reach the right intensity but it's quite difficult to remove it if you put too much in. (Tell us something we don't know. -Ed).

  As you get more used to this, you can move on to combining a number of herbs and spices. Once again, ask around or use recipes for ideas. It won't be long before you gain a natural awareness of which and how much to add as well as which go well together. As usual, I'll remind you that I'm happy to help so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop me a line. Oh, and remember to have fun.

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com