Topic: Shemin's Curry Paste's

[Yousef]

Hi,

So I was contacted by www.shemins.co.uk who kindly sent me some of their curry paste to review.
So here goes...

Background on Shemins

My family makes award-winning curry paste that we sell to farm shops and independents around our area. We came in with the idea of making a fresh, healthy top notch curry paste that has no junk in it and is a chilled product, rather then ambient. We are a small business (just me and mum) and we are doing well in the shops.

I would love to get our name out there to curry lovers and your site is full of them. Is there any way you and maybe some of your top contributors can review the product and we can do a thread with a promotion code for your members? I can send some samples if your up for doing something like this.

REVIEW
So the curry pastes arrived in a nice padded envelope with instructions to refrigerate immediately once received.
Shemin's provide a link to their site for recipes to be used with the paste and they also included some on the inside of the product wrapping.  I decided to try the Hot Curry Paste.


Once i had thought about the recipe i would use i embarked on making a prawn curry using the 'hot' curry paste.

Ingredients



3 TBS - Veg Oil
2 TBS - Shemins Curry Paste
1 TS - Whole Cumin Seeds (Toated in Pan)
1 Red Onion - Diced
10 - King Prawns
2 - Green Chili (Sliced)
1 TBS - Tomato Paste
100ml - Passata
3 - Cherry Tomato (Sliced in half)
Ginger / Garlic
Coriander (1 TBS)
Squeeze of Lime



I started off dry frying the Cumin Seeds until fragrant then added the red onion



Once the red onion is browned I added the Garlic and Ginger



I kept it going for another 2 minutes and stirred with a wooden spoon and then added the Tomato Paste and Shemins Curry Paste



Once that had cooked out for a few mins I added the Tomato Passata



I cooked that for a few more minutes before adding the Chili and Tomatoes



This bubbled away for a few minutes and then i added the amazing king prawns;



I cooked this away for a few minutes until the prawns were cooked (3 mins max), then I served with Basmati Rice.




The final dish served on a plate


I also got a cheeky beer in as well as this was a spicy dish


Conclusion
The total cooking time was around 20 minutes and i believe the finished result was an excellent looking dish.
The curry paste is labelled as hot but after the cooking process it had dulled the heat somewhat.
The Paste comes in oil but with the addition of the veg oil it had a good oil content.

For me this was a nice convenience product that perhaps would be a good addition to a dinner party as a quick dish that could be prepared.
It is certainly not a BIR style curry but i do not believe Shemins is trying to recreate BIR style dishes.

I am unaware of the price of this product and have not looked into this so if it is reasonable and you fancy something different that will guarantee a quality looking curry then this could be a welcome addition to the fridge.

I believe one other member 'CurryHell' has some paste on route to trial and review so I would be interested to see how he get's on...

All the best
Stew

[Peripatetic Phil]

Good balanced review, Stew, although you gave the game away prematurely by writing :

i embarked on making a prawn curry using the 'hot' curry paste

the scare quotes around 'hot' revealing that it was not, in fact, as hot as you had expected.

One suggestion : you appear to have used the prawns in their whole state (uncut) as the gut is clearly visible in the photographs -- I would strongly recommend slitting them open (but not cutting them in half) and removing the gut using the point of the knife : not only does this reduce the risk of food poisoning, but it also greatly improves the texture of the cooked prawn, as the soft inside is then exposed; the outside tends to go a little over-firm during cooking and makes the prawn crunchy rather than succulent if it is unslit.

** Phil.

[Yousef]

Hi Phil,

The paste was hot to the taste when opened fresh from the tub, however it did seem to lose its heat during the cooking process, I guess it got diluted down from its very much concentrated state.

Good point regarding the prawns I slit them the other side....whoops.

Stew

[SheminsCurryPaste]

thanks for your review and great pictures. Shemins Curry paste is based on curries made in East Africa. The combination of the  herbs and spices used is more delicate than a Bengali or Pakistani curry which is what a British restaurant style curry would be based on.   Shemins Curry paste is also very versatile and can be used as a base. The cook can than add garam masala, chilli or whole spices like cloves, cardamon, cinnamon nutmeg etc to it allowing a more creative style of cooking without the hard work.
It was good to get your view and thanks again for trying Shemins Curry Paste.
Best
Shemin

[George]

The combination of the  herbs and spices used is more delicate than a Bengali or Pakistani curry which is what a British restaurant style curry would be based on.

Shemin - Could you make pastes with a combination of herbs and spices which produce a BIR type flavour? If someone could buy a bottle of paste from a supermarket, and  really produce a BIR flavoured curry, now that would surely be a runaway success. Most products I've tried which claim to produce restaurant type curries fall well short. The manufacturers should be prosecuted for deception. Could you do better? If so, it would really be of interest.

Stew - great review, thanks.

[StoneCut]

Shemin mentions that these are "african" curry pastes. I somehow doubt you'd get a BIR flavour from them even though most of the spices are the same as in India. To my knowledge, African cuisine additionally uses spices such as dried rose petals, though.

I'd still try their paste if I stumbled over it, though.

[George]

Shemin mentions that these are "african" curry pastes. I somehow doubt you'd get a BIR flavour from them

To clarify, I'm not suggesting anyone 'converts' an African curry paste into one with BIR flavours.

Why do that, when it must be possible to use many of the same, or similar, spices to formulate a completely new blend which might be a runaway success if it really did deliver BIR tastes.

[RubyDoo]

Good balanced review, Stew, although you gave the game away prematurely by writing :

i embarked on making a prawn curry using the 'hot' curry paste

the scare quotes around 'hot' revealing that it was not, in fact, as hot as you had expected.

One suggestion : you appear to have used the prawns in their whole state (uncut) as the gut is clearly visible in the photographs -- I would strongly recommend slitting them open (but not cutting them in half) and removing the gut using the point of the knife : not only does this reduce the risk of food poisoning, but it also greatly improves the texture of the cooked prawn, as the soft inside is then exposed; the outside tends to go a little over-firm during cooking and makes the prawn crunchy rather than succulent if it is unslit.

** Phil.

Weird one Phil. The intestinal tract on a prawn and similar actually runs down the back. They are not normally bad ( dangerous ) to eat but not nice to look at and can be a bit bitty in larger ones. The pics above appear to show the line on the belly side. Best removed anyway I agree but OP seems to have removed the tract on the back in the cooked picture.

........... And looks very tasty

[solarsplace]

Hi Stew

Great review and pictures. The final curry looks delicious.

Very pleased to see from the website that their paste's are gluten free too!

No additives, preservatives, colour or sugar, and dairy and gluten free. Ensuring 100% pure, uninhibited flavour.

Will definitely give this a try!

Regards

[StoneCut]

Why do that, when it must be possible to use many of the same, or similar, spices to formulate a completely new blend which might be a runaway success if it really did deliver BIR tastes.

I would have to agree about that.