I can't quite believe it, but after months of work with our friends at Granel Gourmet, this week we launched a spice kit to accompany my Indian Cookbook. I could not be more proud and to see "Olly's Kitchen" on a range of spices to make it even easier for people to make Indian food at home. This has been possible largely due to the efforts of our good friend Veronica who has been instrumental in making this happen.
As a first market, we have launched the spice kits with the Spanish edition of the book in Colombia, a country that has now become very close to our hearts. We want to see how customers react to the products, learn from the experience and make the spice kits available around the world so that we can make Indian cooking more accessible to those that have not yet tried it. For those of you in the UK and the US, I would love to get your feedback on where and how you currently buy your spices. Do you buy online? In supermarkets? Indian stores? It's great intel for me, so I would appreciate it greatly if you could shoot me a quick message or reply to this post and it will give me some clues as to how I may be able to help you further with your Indian cooking journey in the future.
The idea for the spice kits came about as we tried to tackle the question of "What is stopping people from cooking Indian food at home?" We're trying to bust the myth that it's in any way difficult or time consuming and introduce delicious Indian food into the meal times of new audiences. I'm certainly interested to know what issues you have run into whilst trying out the recipes, we're always trying to find ways to make it easier for our friends to create these dishes at home.
Whilst launching the spice kits has been a phenomenal experience, on a more personal note, my proudest achievement this month has been becoming a grandfather again! Welcome to the family little one, Dadu loves you!
All the best,
Olly
PS, para nuestros amigos Colombianos, estamos muy orgullosos de anunciar el lanzamiento del nuevo spice kit de Olly's Kitchen producido por Granel. Lo pueden encontrar en el negocio de Granel Gourmet localizado en la Carrera 4A # 66-14, Bogota, Colombia. Un regalo perfecto para el Día del padre en Colombia este domingo ;)
A new year, a new cover for my book!
Indian cooking for beginners
If it's not too late to say so, happy new year my friends!
I hope you had a chance to practice your Indian cooking over the holidays and have dazzled everybody with your skills in the kitchen. Myself, I had my family visiting from the US so I had my grand kids running around the house to keep me occupied - lots of Ninjago and bracelet making!
With the new year, I wanted to address some feedback I had received from you all and have repackaged Olly's Kitchen with a new cover and tag line for the book: "Indian Cooking for Beginners". I have tried to bring some of the photos by our wonderful photographer (the uber talented Alex Mejia) onto the cover and hope this will help new audiences understand more quickly what this book is about.
The new versions are available on Amazon as of this week - I would love to get your thoughts on the new cover, so please do shoot me a mail, I read every response and try to address any questions you may have regarding the recipes or Indian cooking in general.
Those of you who have been on the mailing list since our humble beginnings are no doubt ready for some new recipes - be rest assured this year we have some exciting developments to help you impress your friends and family with your cooking talent.
All the best,
Olly
Garam Masala - the magic ingredient
Today I will teach you how to make a secret ingredient that will make your curries mouth wateringly good with a 60 second video.
First of all, my apologies for the long delay since my last update, life as a "Pensiopreneur" comes with its challenges but I am now back in the kitchen but as promised, I wanted to share some more Indian cooking tips with you.
If you've been to an Indian restaurant and ever had a really great curry, chances are it contained a spice blend called Garam Masala. If you've downloaded your free starter pack, I included the recipe there but as I have now learned how to use my iPhone a little better, I've put together a video for you (below) to show you in less than 60 seconds how to make your own Garam Masala mix.
The word "GARM" means hot in Hindi and in Bengali (Garam). It is a misnomer as the spice mixture is not hot but aromatic. Lot of Chefs would tell you that their mixture is a family secret and passed down generations. It is a mixture of aromatic spices and there are lots of spices which may be used to suit one's own palette.
The base of the mixture is
- Cardamom
- Cloves and
- Cinnamon
To this one may add
- Black peppercorn
- Black cardamom
- Nutmeg
- Cumin seeds
- Coriander seeds
I usually do a batch with 20 grams each of Cloves, Green Cardamom and Cinnamon sticks.
To this I add
- One or two black Cardamom pods
- 1 medium sized Nutmeg seed and
- 20 grams of whole black peppercorns
I break down the cinnamon sticks into smaller pieces for ease of grinding later. I also crush the Nutmeg into small pieces.
The mixture is gently roasted until the aroma starts to come out (gentle smoke) . The mixture is allowed to cool and ground in a spice grinder in batches. The whole blend is then sieved to remove any unground husks. It is then stored in a air tight container and it can be kept like this easily for months.
It is mostly used to add final touch to a curry and also in marinades for Kebabs.
Anyway, enjoy the video and always please do tag me on Facebook and/or Instagram using the hashtag #OllysKitchen with your latest Indian dishes, I am always happy to see how you are getting on with the recipes from the book.
Lastly, for our Spanish speaking friends, stay tuned for a very special announcement about our partnership with Amazon's Kindle in the month of October :)
All the best and enjoy the video!
Olly