Hi there,
I often want to make recipes that require Indian curry paste, but all I can ever find in the mainstream supermarkets is the Thai Green and Thai red varieties (by Masterfoods or Gregg’s). I have seen some “Korma” meal base curry pastes, but not just curry paste I can use by the spoonful in a recipe. Does anybody have a recommendation of a brand, and where I could buy it? Thanks, it would be a real help. I am in Auckland central, by the way.

I haven’t used it for a while, but I recall that the Sharwood’s brand was good. I used to buy their Tandoori paste, and there were several other curry pastes as well. Try a supermarket, or failing that go to a specialty In*ian food market.

Patak's do several curry pastes, such as the korma one you mention. They come in packets or glass jars. We've bought the glass jars many times and used some of the paste and stored the remainder in the jar indefinitely in the refrigerator with no problems.

Something else you can do instead, and what we do these days, is make our own curry pastes using Jamie Oliver's curry paste recipes [www.jamieoliver.com]

You don't have to follow his recipes exactly. Jamie's Rogan Josh recipe uses roasted peppers from a jar, which is a bit of a pain. I followed the recipe the first time and now I just omit the roasted peppers (Patak's rogan josh curry paste doesn't have bell peppers in it anyway), I use olive oil instead of groundnut oil. Jamie's rogan josh recipe makes about half to three-quarters of a cup of paste.

From his website comments section at the time I copied over the recipes, I kept a note of the following comments:
1. In the Ministry of Food book, Jamie says these can be used in place of half a jar of Patak's jars of paste.
2. Make sure your jars are clean, pack tightly with paste making sure there's no air pockets, and pour a bit of oil on the top of the paste to create a "seal'. I store mine in the fridge. Will keep for weeks.
3. Priyatham Chowdary says If you really want to freeze them you can, freezing them in airtight will make them stay for months together; they won’t go bad but overtime they tend to loose taste, fresh is always good.
4. Does it matter what type of oil? I use olive and vegetable oil usually for cooking.
5. One small bunch fresh coriander"... Define "small!". Cilantro comes in a standard sized "bunch", do we blend it all, stems and all???Priyatham Chowdary replies to this question: yes you can grind stems and all, stems actually have better flavor than leaves

That’s so helpful, J1. Thankyou for all your tips! By the way, I think groundnut oil is the same as peanut oil. I will definitely try your suggestions.

Thanks TPANDAV, I will look out for Sharwoods. Good tip.

Can't beat the pastes from the specialty stores which are very common in and around most areas of Auckland. Shop owners are usually very helpful if you need assistance.

I like the Asian Home Gourmet spice pastes. They have a full range of curry pastes.

[www.asianhomegourmet.com]

I use the Butter Chicken one all the time, a favorite with the kids, my secret ingredient is to add a couple of star anise and to use a bottle of passata instead of chopped tomatoes which gives a "food hall" style sauce. I sometimes add more chilli if I want it hotter. I've used quite a few of the other flavors too, they are a good pantry standby. If you don't use the whole sachet you can just pop the rest in the freezer.

Have you been here?

[www.mahadeos.co.nz]

Its in Eden Tce Auckland.

I havent been in a long while but (despite the website being very basic) Im would imagine they would have what youre after and it would be authentic. If not, Im pretty sure you would get great advice.

Vanessa

In terms of ordering Indian products online -- oddly enough I've found this website to be really reliable. It is a central marketplace for a lot of smaller Indian stores in Auckland. Late one night I was trying to order the tea I drink, but the shopping cart was having a problem processing it - so I sent feedback letting them know. I got a reply within about 7 minutes and the problem had been fixed. I also had an issue once with an order - I ordered 3 x 500g boxes of tea, but received 1x500g and 1x1kg. Again I emailed the support link and got a phone call within 30 minutes, and the problem was resolved within a couple of days.

I'm happy to support places that may have a few speedbumps so long as they are active about sorting them out. So many online places have questionable customer service. Anyway, those are the 2 problems I've had in many orders, so not bad at all. The shipping is very reasonable too - flat rate I think, even for rural addresses.

It's a great option for me as it is a 50 minute drive to my nearest Indian grocery store, in an area I don't often have other need to visit.

[www.mandibazaar.co.nz]