Topic: Boxed Indian Masala's

[makum101]

Whilst at my local indian supermarket I noticed a whole isle of little boxes of various masala's from madras to tikka, and many more Ive never heard of. All were from India / Pakistan. The only customers browsing them were Asian. All the British people were in the spice isle (like I normally am). The instructions state to add water and meat and simmer.

Has anyone tried any of these indian boxed masalas? Any good?

[joshallen2k]

My local Indian grocery has these two. There must be over a hundred different types in those small boxes.

I think they are "quick fix" convenient meal-makers. Not authentic Indian curry from scratch, and definitely not BIR.

I tried one once and thought it was bland and ordinary.

[PaulP]

I work with a load of Indian IT workers and they use stuff like this for making a quick meal. I have tasted some of the food they produce and it's definitely not like BIR food.

I must admit some of the spice mixtures taste quite interesting and might be of use in small quantities.

[commis]

Hi
Well worth a look,best for one pot/slow cooking,can be a little on the hot side since blended for the Asian palate. As for not being BIR, were do you think you will find chat masala?

[PaulP]

When I say not BIR I watched one of my Indian work buddies cooking a lamb curry for about 8 of us.

He marinaded pieces of lamb with yoghurt, garlic paste, ginger paste, green chili puree and some "meat masala" - can't remember the make but could be Laziza or MDH.

The meat masala tasted like quite a good fiery curry powder. This was marinaded for 24 hours. At cooking time he fried some onions, then garlic and ginger pastes and some more green chili puree. He added some dried red chilis then the lamb (with marinade) then some water and salt. Some more meat masala went in and he had another box of spice which tasted like garam masala to me. He added a bit of cornflour to thicken and it cooked for about 1.5 hours.

The end result was quite pleasant but nowhere near a BIR curry.

I think some of these boxes of spice have their place though and might make a replacement for the curry powder component of our own masala mixes.

[976bar]

Bland and Tasteless, you'll be forever adding to them, I've tried quite a few. You're better off sticking with the recipes on here really.

[commis]

Hi
I find them useful for trying different regional styles you would never see in books, the lentil ones are quick and easy another plus is they are cheap and fresh so nothing to loose really.