Chicken Korma & Beef Massaman Curries - review of the Spice & Sizzle Kits

This is quite a difficult post for me to write - mainly because I hate giving negative feedback on something I've been sent to review.  However, surely that's the whole point of reviewing something - to find out what's good and what's bad about it?

The lovely people at Spice & Sizzle very kindly sent me a number of their Curry Kits to try.

Now I might have got the wrong end of the stick (although I doubt it), but my understanding of these kits is that you use the contents, plus (for example) a tin of coconut milk and some chicken, cook according to the instructions and bingo, you've got a curry.

See those two compartments on the left? Turmeric.

Well, it didn't happen that way for me.

The first one we tried was the Korma curry kit - to which I added chicken and a tin of coconut milk.

Included in the kit were turmeric, ginger, garlic, shallots and chillies.  Now I wasn't sure how these few ingredients would come together to make an Indian Korma Curry, but felt confident that they wouldn't say it could, if it couldn't.  Well, it couldn't.  I'm really not sure what it did make - but it was a very long way from an acceptable Indian Korma.

Chicken plus spices

All of the ingredients in the kit can be used to make a Korma - of that I've no doubt.  Just not in the quantities (either too little - shallots - or too much - turmeric) that they were supplied.  The dominant flavour was that of the fresh turmeric, which was gritty and unpleasant because of its quantity in relation to the lack of quantity of anything else.  The shallots might as well not have been there.  The coconut milk added some sweetness, but those few spices couldn't even begin to try to produce the many layers of flavour involved in a true Indian Korma.

To say it was disappointing is doing it a favour.  In truth, I cannot see how it can ever purport to produce an Indian Korma Curry without its background chorus of onion, cardamom, cream and at the very least, fresh coriander.

The end result - just horrid and full of gritty turmeric

However, so as not to write all the kits off in one fell swoop, I decided to give the Massaman Curry one a go, using some of the lovely silverside of beef that our butcher was selling.  However, with this one, I simply used the spices included in the kit and went a bit freestyle with the ingredients and cooking process thereafter, following a recipe which purported to represent an "authentic" Massaman curry.

Please note, however, that the kit itself contained lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, shallots, chilli and garlic.  The instructions recommended you "simply add beef, coconut milk and potatoes" and it would be "ready in 19 minutes".

In addition to the above roll call, I added galangal, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves, cardamom seeds, cinnamon, star anise, whole shallots, fish sauce, tamarind and basil.

I began by making up a massaman curry paste, which included the lemongrass, ginger, chilli and garlic, plus the galangal, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and cloves, which I ground together using a pestle & mortar.  This very effectively broke the lemongrass down even further from its minced state and stopped it behaving in the way that the turmeric did with the Korma version, i.e. get in your teeth!

I then mixed the beef with the paste, the kaffir lime leaves and some peanut oil and left it to marinade for a half an hour or so.

Looks promising - but didn't deliver

I fried the beef (and curry paste) off in a pan and placed it into the slow cooker, along with the minced shallots from the kit, the whole shallots, cardamom, cinnamon and star anise which had also been fried to release their fragrance and flavour.

Next I added the coconut milk, fish sauce, some salt, pepper and a little water - until the liquid was almost covering the beef, but not quite.  I left the slow cooker to its own devices for the next 4-5 hours.

For the next phase, I spooned the meat (which was beautifully tender by then) out and poured the sauce into a pan.  I added another half a can of coconut milk, some potatoes (Jersey Royals, diced) and half the basil leaves, a hefty teaspoonful of dried chilli flakes because the chilli had completely disappeared, partly covered the pan and simmered until the potatoes were cooked and the sauce reduced a little.

The tamarind juice went in next - to taste - along with a little sugar and the remaining basil, together with the cubes of beef.  All was heated through and then served with plain white rice.

After all that, I was the only person who really enjoyed their curry.  Hubby found his bland and although he enjoyed the flavour of the beef, found the sauce to be verging on unpalatable.  Son & heir ate all his beef and potatoes and left all the sauce.


I agreed with hubby that the curry was bland - it lacked something that would make it stand up and be counted as a Massaman Curry as opposed to any other mild Thai curry.  (Oh, and by the way, do the Thai's DO "mild" curries?  I don't think so!).   I was so hoping that I would be able to say "well, okay, you can't make a good curry with just the kit, but you can use the kit's contents as components in a good curry" - but apparently not.

Such a shame.

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Meal planning around many different requirements!

Empty plate - that's what we're after!

Sometimes, I wonder about the monster I've created here with this blog.  Particularly when we find ourselves on a Monday morning trying to juggle all the menu plan's different requirements.

For instance, I agreed to join in with the Lean on Turkey campaign (remember the Petuba Canneloni?) and challenge no. 2 has just been announced.  I needed to come up with a low fat/healthy meal for 4, for £10.

Then there is the Mic's Chilli products that I agreed to review, and the Spice'n'Sizzle curry kits that I promised to review.

Of course, along with all that is son & heir's commitments with band and choir practice, necessitating a late pick-up from school on two days in the week.

Considering how difficult it used to be to just think of nice dinners to have for a week, I think I must be a sucker for punishment.

Not that I'm complaining!  (Well, alright, it might SOUND as though I'm complaining).  All this does wonders for keeping me off the streets.  After all, I might be out there in my slippers shouting at the neighbourhood kids, or running my stick down the railings or worse.  Okay, it's not likely, but it might happen!  Instead, I'm here in my cave exercising the grey matter, in between stumbling about the kitchen, muttering and stirring, chopping and tasting.

So what sort of plan did we come up with, that took into account all the above elements?  I think we did quite well - but if you could hear hubby swearing about those fish cakes right now, you'd wonder.  *chuckle*

Tues : Turkey & Asparagus Impossible Quiche, buttered Jersey Royals and salad

Wed : Smoked Haddock Fishcakes & salad

Thur : Beef Massaman Curry & rice

Fri : Pasties, chips and baked beans

Sat : Barbecue Burritos with chopped salad

Sun : Roast Beef, roast potatoes & parsnips, carrots, savoy cabbage, Yorkshire puddings & horseradish sauce

Mon : Tuna Pasta Bake with garlic bread.

You'll notice I planned in a couple of "days off" for us there!

Well, last night's Lean on Turkey meal went off without a hitch.  Considering it was one of the late school pickup nights, it fitted into the time available very well.  I was very pleased with how the Impossible Quiche came out, as I'd never made one that wasn't bacon & cheese before.  I'll be blogging it next, so won't say more than that just at the moment.


Tonight's Fishcakes are hubby facing his nemesis.  He loves fish, but really dislikes potatoes.  You would think, therefore, that he'd be keen to make the Thai fishcakes - but no, he's gone for making ye olde English style fishcake.


He's out in the kitchen right now, making the mashed potato and cooking the fish in advance of the egg & breadcrumb maelstrom that he's determined to put himself through in order to create HIS kind of fishcake, as opposed to MY kind of fishcake.  *chuckle*  My kind of fishcake is fish & mashed potato (with seasoning & herbs), fried.  Apparently, that's not a "real" fishcake - not without being pannéd anyway.


Rod for his own back?  As they say on LOLCats, aithinkso.  *smile*  Still, I'm sure the fishcakes will be gorgeous - after all, smoked fish and mashed potato?  What could go wrong?

Thursday's Beef Massaman Curry is another matter entirely.  We'll be taking advantage of the local butcher's special offer on silverside for this curry - and also trying out the Massaman Curry Spice'n'Sizzle kit.  I have already tried the Korma curry kit - which I made according to their instructions.  This time, I'm using the spices included in the kit but adding my own ingredients to the mix - so we'll see how we get on this time!

It's another late school pickup night on Thursday, so I've planned - being beef - to use the slow cooker for the early cooking and transfer to the cooker top once we're back home (if necessary).  I'm hoping it will be a good flavoursome curry - as slow cooking the beef will ensure it is tender.


I'll blog the results once we're done and it will be interesting to see what we think about the two methods and how they worked.


Friday is very definitely a day off.  Chuck some shop-bought Cornish Pasties in the oven along with some oven chips and heat up some baked beans.  Slumming it in a big way - but who cares, it'll taste great and we don't have to spend an hour creating it!

Saturday's Barbecue Burrito's will give me a chance to use the Mic's Chilli Barbecue Sauce, which looks yummy in the jar and will hopefully be as yummy on the plate!  We've also got four (yes, four!) chilli sauces to try - and a sweet chilli sauce, too.  I thought it would be interesting to use pork mince instead of the obvious beef - and I'm quite looking forward to this one.


Sunday finds hubby back in the kitchen roasting a lovely piece of Beef Silverside.  We're staying traditional with this one and are looking forward to a good old style roast dinner.


Monday's Tuna Pasta Bake will come as welcome relief at the end of a busy week.  As I've said before, we all love the Homepride Tuna Pasta Bake mix - and with hubby's delicious home made garlic bread, it's just perfect.


I don't (currently) have any plans for any additional bakes or makes, but who knows what will occur to me in the meantime!  After all, I've two enormous rhubarb plants out in the garden glowering at me and challenging me to create something luscious for dessert on Sunday - and the Gooseberry bush is coming along nicely, too.


Hmmn - it'd be interesting to make a sort of rhubarb fool that's a lot healthier than the regular (gorgeous) rhubarb fools ... I'll have to give that one a ponder.


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