Hari Ghotra Madras Curry Kit Review

We were asked by the lovely Hari Ghotra to review her curry kit.  I can’t cook, so I am handing over to Mr Hubby for this one!

I like cooking and am drawn to dishes that we tended not to have when I was a child; Chinese and Indian cuisines especially.

The skill required to combine numerous herbs and spices to create wonderfully balanced and flavoursome dishes is something that has to be admired.

My experience so far is watching a lot of cookery programmes on TV and thinking “that looks like something I could do”.  I would buy the cookery book, see the list of spices needed, and then jump in the car, go to the supermarket and buy a jar of ready made sauce (I’ve always been a bit lazy, as I’m sure you’d be told if you asked Aby about various DIY projects over the years)!  I’ve bought that many books, I’ve recently had to put more shelves in the kitchen to accommodate them!

So, when I was asked if I would like to review a spice kit from Hari Ghotra, I jumped at the chance. I’ve picked them up in the shop before and decided against it, as I still feel I’d need a bit of assistance throughout the recipe.  The package arrived and not only did it contain the spice kit but an apron, a wooden spoon and some extra recipe cards.

Before I tell you how it went, I must confess to using some incorrect items – the chillis were green at the time I bought them (honest), but home and work events overtook me somewhat and they had ripened by the time I actually managed to cook the dish!  Also, I didn’t have a cast iron pan with a lid, so I used a wok with a large frying pan as the lid (bodgery has always been a skill of mine).  So, with my ingredients assembled and the small person in bed, I set about cooking my first Lamb Madras.

The spices came in separate, numbered, bags so novices like me shouldn’t get confused.  Also on the packet was a bar code which, when scanned using my mobile, took me to Hari’s website and a video of her cooking the dish – answering any remaining questions I had about the recipe.

I ground the spices from bag 1 using elbow grease and the pestle and mortar.  Please ignore the photo that seems to show a plug, which is almost definitely not from a grinder that I didn’t use… The smell from the ground spices was lovely and had my taste buds tingling already.

After adding the contents of bag 2 to the recently ground mixture, the lamb was coated and left to marinate while I set about cooking the onion, along with bag 3, to a dark brown colour. This seemed to take an eternity (I’m impatient as well as lazy), but was probably just over 20 minutes.

Garlic, Chilli and Ginger then went in the pan followed by the tomatoes and Tamarind water (made by soaking the contents of bag 4 in boiling water and sieving in to the pan).  This was simmered to a thick masala sauce (in hindsight, I could have reduced it further as my finished dish had a slightly thinner sauce than I think is intended) before the lamb was added.

After an agonising hour of smelling the aromas emanating from the kitchen, the lamb was tender and I could tuck in.  I wasn’t disappointed.  I had bought a jar of Madras sauce the previous week so I could carry out my own taste test and compare the two.  The jar was very pleasant but, even taking in to account my ham-fisted antics (I’m not entirely sure there wasn’t a small slither of finger nail in there from my chilli chopping), this one was absolutely delicious.  It wasn’t as hot as I was expecting but that was probably down to the fresh chilli I used; I would think that a bird’s eye was called for instead of my milder one.

I had naan bread as an accompaniment; shop bought this time as I hadn’t properly checked out Hari’s website at the time, sorry.

The website is worth a special mention – the amount of recipes and information is incredible. Starters, mains, side and sweets are all covered and are tagged with, among other things, suggested accompaniments, indications of time and skill required and suitability for children.

There is also a virtual culinary tour of India where you can learn the origins of your favourite dishes.  This was really good for me as I have to admit to being somewhat ignorant about the diverse nature of Indian cuisine.

There is absolutely no way I could have cooked this by simply looking at any one of my recipe books; the detail I needed just isn’t there.  I would encourage anyone who likes the idea of cooking Indian food to check out Hari’s site, you won’t be disappointed.

I have signed up for Hari’s newsletter and am already clearing space in the kitchen cupboards for my new collection of spices and deciding which recipe to tackle next.

Disclosure: We were sent this kit in return for an honest review.