Hi Folks

Some of you may recall that we recently established a relationship with Spices of India which we launched with a competition for a wonderful basket of spices.

Please do click here to find out more about Spices of India and our thoughts on them.

They stock many items that would make great christmas presents for foodies or for yourself and their final shipping date to ensure orders arrive with you before christmas is the 18th December.

Please visit the site using this link.

Many thanks

Kavita

What a great idea! I will jut do that. They (spices) are very useful and look good, specially in those steel container! I might add an Indian cookery book to it, any suggestions?

Pebs

50 Great Curries of India (Paperback) by Camellia Panjabi is good, quite reasonable at £7.19 from Amazon. You could always give them spices collection and point them to this site, which is free :-)!

Julie

Pebs, I'm afraid I don't really know Indian cookery books as I've got mum (Mamta) to ask for recipes and tips!

But if you want to keep prices down you're welcome to use the printer-friendly links on each recipe page and print out a selection of recipes from this site to go with the ingredients you buy - if you decide to reformat them just please make sure you include the author name and that they are (c) to Mamta's Kitchen!

Giving someone who loves cooking Indian food, a selection of spices is a great idea. You could buy individual packets and divide them into several containers; specially designed making many gifts at a reasonable price. I will suggest that you get 2 spice boxes for each person, one for whole spices and one for ground spices.

For selection of spices, see Ingredients list on the roll down menu under ‘Advice’. My choice for a beginner will be as follows:

Whole spices:

Cumin Seeds (Jeera Sabut)

Black mustard seeds (Rai)

Cloves (Laung or Lavang or Long)*

Peppercorns (Kali Mirch Sabut)*

Cinnamon sticks (Dalchini)*

Black Cardamoms (Badi Illaichi or Kali Illaichi)*

Bay Leaf (Tej-patta)*

Ground Spices:

Coriander powder (Dhania Pisa)

Turmeric Powder(Haldi Pisi)

Chilli powder (Lal Mirch Pisi)

Ground Cumin (Pisa Jeera)

Sweet paprika powder (Shimla Mirch) This is used for giving colour to curries, without making them too hot.

Dry Mango Powder(Amchoor)

Garam Masala

*Ingredients for Garam Masala

Mamta

nice ideas... would come in handy by day three of Christmas when you've had turkey, turkey soup, turkey sandwiches etc...