We Brits Love Our Curry! Celebrating National Curry Week with Sainsbury's

In celebration of National Curry Week (10th – 16th October), Sainsbury’s have commissioned a survey to reveal how the nation’s love of Indian cuisine has evolved since its introduction to the UK.

Curry first came to Britain in the 18th century, and over the years our nation has fully embraced Indian cuisine establishing it as a firm national favourite. Up until the 1980s, many of the options on offer were just anglicised versions of a select few Indian dishes, but a demand for more authentic, flavoursome, diverse and exotic cuisine has developed over the decades. Sainsbury's has been meeting this demand, reviewing and testing recipes and ideas to create authentic products with passion.

When it comes to grocery shopping, our choice of spices has evolved too. Alongside store cupboard favourites such as chilli, ginger, paprika and cumin, we are now opting for more exotic ingredients when it comes to cooking curry. Sainsbury’s has reported that sales of garam masala are up by nearly a quarter (24%) whilst cumin and coriander seed are dramatically increasing in popularity. Sales of turmeric are up 9%. 37% of Brits are also willing to spend up to three hours in the kitchen perfecting the mix of spices for the best possible flavour for a home cooked curry.

THE NATION’S CURRY HABITS

•             The nation selected Tikka Masala and Korma as their favourite dishes

•             The Welsh opted for hot Madras as their favourite dish

•             The UK chose naan breads over rice as their favourite side dish

•             The majority of the UK like hot curry but Londoners prefer milder recipes

•             Brits will spend a huge £30,331 on curry in their lifetime

•             43% of Brits would opt for a ready meal over a takeaway for convenience and value 

•             Nearly half of us say we would eat curry any night of the week - it's not just a weekend meal

Sainsbury’s first introduced classic Indian ingredients, such as curry powder and mango chutney, in 1920, representing a revolutionary addition to supermarket shopping for the time. Their first Indian ready meals were introduced to customers in 1989. Over 20 years on, Sainsbury’s stocks a range of 50 prepared Indian dishes and accompaniments, selling more than £61m of Indian food per annum. 

The Sainsbury's range of Indian ready meals is continually evolved to suit the changing preferences of their customers. They have recently enhanced their range of vegetarian side dishes including By Sainsbury's Sweet Potato and Red Onion Bhajis, By Sainsbury's Tadka Daal and Taste the Difference Crispy Beetroot and Chilli Samosas.

To find out more about Sainsbury’s variety of spices and new Indian inspired ready meals or to see the full list of ready meals, visit www.sainsburys.com.

A Veggie Vacation in Leicester

When you think of cities for a gastronomically themed UK break, I doubt that many people would think of Leicester in the first instance. However, we have just returned from a weekend in the city to celebrate Ian's birthday, enjoying the wonderful food on offer for vegetarian families like ourselves. The Veggie Vacation is one of the Stay, Play and Explore short breaks that you can enjoy in Leicester. Each break includes a hotel stay with breakfast at the Ramada Encore in the city centre, as well as some additional experiences all included in the price.

The Veggie Vacation includes a choice of three out of five experience options. You can choose between a three course meal and hot drink at Mirch Masala; a cocktail making class with two drinks each at 33 Cank Street; buffet lunch and drink at Shivalli; afternoon tea at White Peacock and a consultation and shop tour with arm massage at Lush. You can pre-book your three choices before you travel and print off your voucher online to take with you on the day.

It was great to have an all-inclusive package to look forward to, helping us to plan our weekend, knowing that most of our food was taken care of and pre-paid for. As vegetarians, it was lovely to be able to take the hassle out of eating out. All the experiences offered provide a tried and tested vegetarian option (and in some cases vegan), so we knew we could enjoy them with confidence.

Our first port of call in Leicester was the White Peacock where we had booked a vegetarian afternoon tea. The place was lovely with attentive staff and stylish decor. It was a real posh treat! We were served tea or coffee followed by a slate plate of quartered or fingered sandwiches with fillings such as brie, cucumber, egg, feta & roast pepper and grated cheese with fruity pickle. They were elegantly presented. A pair of two tiered plates of cakes followed including warm tonka bean and saffron scones with clotted cream and fruit compote, salted caramel panna cotta, strawberry tart, chocolate and parma violet cream cake, chocolate truffle and iced fruit and almond cake. There was plenty of food to go round and it was all in easy to manage portion sizes, meaning we got to try everything.

Mirch Masala is a completely vegetarian restaurant serving food from India, Mexico, Indo-China and Italy. The menu is staggeringly huge and we were utterly spoiled for choice with their huge array of starters and mains from around the world. Usually in restaurants we get to choose between two or three options at the best, so having a whole menu at our disposal was brilliant. However it took us ages to choose, but thankfully our waiter was very patient and on hand to answer our questions. We finally decided on an eclectic mix of world cuisines including Chinese dim sum, Mexican nachos, Italian lasagne and Indian curries.

The food was really very good and the portion sizes were massive. Leftovers were boxed up and returned at the end of the meal to take home for later. Mirch Masala is a real gem in the city centre for vegetarians and vegans alike, with reasonable prices, great choices, good food and excellent service.

Shivalli was our destination for our lunch on Sunday. From the outside the restaurant looks quite unassuming, but once inside it was lovely. The buffet of Southern Indian curries, rice, dosa, appetisers, popadoms and salads looked and smelled so appetising. We were shown to our table and brought drinks and a jug of water. We loved that we could select our choices from the buffet in little silver bowls and serve ourselves at the table. One pet hate of mine is having a plateful of mix and match food on my plate, so this worked so well, allowing us to savour each dish. In addition to the buffet, which had some incredible tasting veggie curries, we were also brought some freshly prepared pancakes filled with spicy potato curry and some puffy breads. Everything was divine and the attentive, friendly service made this a wonderful experience.

In addition to our fantastic food, we also enjoyed shopping in some of Leicester's quirky and independent shops (and in their big shopping centre too). It is a really nice city and there was lots going on with buskers and street performers doing their thing as well as the Sky Ride cycle event taking place. The Ramada Encore was a good place to rest our heads. The rooms were clean and well equipped with tea and coffee making, a hairdryer and big TV. The bathroom was superb with a huge walk in, wet room style shower. We had a selection of Lush samples in our room to test out too, which was a real treat.

Overall, we had a brilliant weekend. The cost of the Veggie Vacation with overnight stay, breakfast and the three experiences per person is just £129 for two adults sharing. Such a great value way to explore a new city!

We had two rooms, one for Ian and I and one for Ella and Kezia, and we also took Freddy with us, who slept in a sofa bed for a supplement of £15. (He was too young to go to the White Peacock as that is for 12's and overs, but was welcomed everywhere else. This gave us the chance to take Ian's sister, who doesn't live too far from Leicester, for an girlie afternoon tea with us, while Ian took Freddy to Costa for his lunch, so it worked perfectly for us. )

With Family Fun, Family Adventure, Heritage, City Treats, Gourmet Taste and Richard III vacations also available, there is an option to suit most people's needs.

Find out more about these exciting short breaks in Leicester at www.stayplayexplore.co.uk.

How To Cook a Curry!

On Saturday I was lucky enough to join a group of fellow bloggers for a fantastic experience courtesy of Living Social.  We met at Dilli's Indian Restaurant in Altrincham  for a fantastic demonstration and lesson in Indian cuisine.

Dilli's is a restaurant that serves authentic regional dishes from the heart of India, and has become the benchmark for fine Indian dining.  They run independent cookery classes where you can discover some of the secrets of India's fascinating and unique way of combining flavours and ingredients.  Chefs Ravi and Naeem run the classes consisting of a half hour demonstration followed by a hands-on three dish class with instruction.

We each had our own work station and apron...I felt like I was on Masterchef!

Chef Naeem first demonstrated how to make onion bhajis and mango lassi.  His knife skills were very impressive!  His knowledge, passion and enthusiasm for Indian cuisine kept us all completely enthralled.

We were given lots of tips during the demonstration.  Slicing onions, salting them and leaving them to rest draws out the moisture.  This process can be used to make crispy fried onions if you dry them off or provides enough liquid to bind the bhaji mix when you add gram flour.

The bhajis were exquisite, served with an amazing mint and coriander sauce which was just so fresh and zingy, or a rich tamarind sauce. 

We learned about the different regions of India and how various ingredients were associated with them.  We were told how misused the word 'curry' was in England.  Curry merely means gravy in India.  Also, Masala is simply a word to describe something that consists of three or more ingredients!  It was really informative.

After enjoying the bhajis, we were let loose to cook three dishes for ourselves, under the close guidance and tuition of the chefs. Vegetarians were very well catered for with separate and alternate ingredients.

My work station

We used fresh ingredients and a whole array of wonderful spices.  The smell in the room was amazing! We made an absolutely delicious Paneer Kali Mirch.

A Dal Tarka.

And an Aloo Palak.

The recipes were wonderful, producing three fantastic restaurant quality dishes that I took home for our dinner.   We were also treated to lunch in the restaurant, which was delicious and came with the best nan bread I've ever had.  Dilli's is an amazing restaurant with authentic food that tasted divine.  If you are ever near Altrincham, I'd highly recommend it.

My DIY take-away!!

The Cookery Course was just one of the experiential deals that can be purchased from Living Social.  Everyday, Living Social has a selection of deals for great experiences at local restaurants, spas, theatres and more.  They also have great offers on Family deals, Escapes and Adventures.  Simply buy the deal and look forward to doing something new in your local area or beyond.

Living Social even has an Android or iOS App enabling you to check out what is going on wherever you are, purchase and redeem deals all in one place.  You can get the inside scoop on handpicked, unique and great value deals, and explore the best of any city like a local no matter where you are.

I am now signed up to their daily emails.  The Indian Cookery Course was a great example of the kind of deals they offer at great value prices.  Check out livingsocial.com to find out more.

The Spice Tailor

We are big fans of curry Inside the Wendy House.  I love how versatile Indian cuisine is, and how well it translates into vegetarian cookery.  Although I occasionally make curry from scratch, I generally opt for the time and effort-saving short cut of using jar sauces which are OK, but don't taste like an authentic Indian.  The Spice Tailor is a  new range of quality cooking sauces that are speedy and easy to use and taste like real Indian food should!

The Spice Tailor has a range of seven curry sauces that have been tailor made to let you create authentic Indian dishes with a fresh and modern outlook.  Created by Anjum Annad, the sauces showcase some of the best Indian dishes that she has chosen and developed.  They are free from artificial additives and are completely vegetarian. They also allow you to get dinner on the table in ten minutes!  You can tailor your own meal by adding  your choice of protein or vegetables and each pack comes with serving suggestions.

Each one comes with a packet of spices and include a red Guntur chilli if you want extra heat.  Some include a marinade or base sauce as well as the main cooking sauce.

I was sent a Keralan Coconut Curry and an Original Tikka Masala to try out.

I really liked the cardboard sleeves that attached to the individual plastic bags containing the spices and sauces.  It made the product really stand out from other curry sauces on the market.  Each pack serves 2-3 people, so I made both curries for a full family meal.

Paneer Tikka Masala

Frying the spices.

Adding the Paneer and Marinade.

Stir in the Sauce.

Quorn Keralan Coconut Curry

Frying Spices and Curry Leaves

Add Quorn Pieces and Curry Sauce

It was so easy to make the two curries and they were really quick and easy to do.  I was so impressed by the taste of both curries.  The Tikka Masala worked so well with the Paneer which was seared with the spice infused oil and marinade.  The Kerulan was mild but flavoursome.  

These sauces will make a perfect store cupboard stand-by but are also good enough to serve up at a dinner party or for a special meal.

The Spice Tailor Sauces are available in Korma, Mangalore Herb, Tikka Masala, Rogan Josh, Keralan Coconut Curry, Punjabi Tomato Curry and Spiced Spinach Curry flavours.  They are available to purchase from The Spice Tailor website or from Waitrose for £2.89 a packet.