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 ;)
Turmeric - the wonder spice
Turmeric is a root of the Curcuma longa plant and belongs to the same family as ginger. Although the fresh variety is used in cooking it is the dried variety which is mostly used in Indian cooking. The spice has good antiseptic and antibiotic properties and for this reason raw fish and meat are mixed with it before cooking specially in hot countries to keep bacteria out.
It gives an intense yellow colour and has a characteristic taste, although too much can result in a bitter sensation. We have used the powdered variety throughout the book, which is readily available in supermarkets. The bengali name for Turmeric is "Haldi."
