No surprise to anyone who knows me; I am a foodie. I like to read recipes, cook and eat. I’ll even clean up. It’s all part of the process of creating something tasty from scratch. The only problem is that things from scratch, especially some of the ethnic foods I love, take longer than I have or there are ingredients I don’t have in my cupboard. Which is why Master Indian Spice from St. John, New Brunswick, makes me happy.
Yes, East Indian food, fused with a Portuguese connection, is available from New Brunswick. It’s a bit odd, until you know the story. Sunny Zaman opened an Indian vendor stall at the Fredericton market in 2015. But he had a problem. He couldn’t cook. His partner, Serbiot, was the cook. Sunny liked to share, especially food, and so between the two of them, they created ‘cook-by-number’ versions of the dishes sold at the market. Sunny could then do his share of the food prep, rather than just selling at the market. It was a short step from there to creating DIY spice kits for customers to take home to prepare their own meals. Spice kits proved to be more popular than the prepared food and Master Indian Spice was born.
The mandate is simple; “authentic Indian food requires adding multiple spice blends at the right moments.” The Master Indian Spice packs are like mini cookbooks. The front has the name of the recipe, the number of servings and the preparation time. Turn it over, and on the back you have a grocery list. This is genius! All the nutritional information is on here as well, along with the list of ingredients. There are no fillers, no chemicals, it’s all spice and flavour. Now, flip the back flap and you will see a step-by-step recipe on how to prepare your Indian meal. It’s very detailed and exact. Each of the spice packages has four little spice package inside and these are numbered to match the recipe. So one instruction might be “Now add SPICE PACK 1 and saute for 30 seconds.” It’s that easy. Follow it all the way through and read the last instructions on how much heat you want in your meal. It can be a little or a lot. You decide. Finally, there is always a serving suggestion so you know if rice or naan or something else is a complement to the main dish.
If you are so inclined, there are videos on the Master Indian Spice website to help you visualize your cooking. I followed the recipe for Korma Curry and it was the best I’ve had since being in India many years ago. Amazing. Authentic. And produced right here in our neighbouring province.
I wanted to feature Canadian producers and manufactures in July’s articles, celebrating all things Canadian, but I don’t have to leave the Maritimes to find fabulous stories and products!
Did you know? Although there is a curry tree, typically curry is regional flavours, a blend of spices unique to certain dishes and countries.
Cathy