Madras beef curry

 Tired of the same chicken curry? Then this recipe is perfect for you! I read this on the net and I think this is perfect to those who opt for a beef curry dish.
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Ingredients (serves 4)
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chilli powder (optional)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1kg chuck steak, cut into 2.5cm cubes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup beef stock
steamed basmati rice, raita and mint leaves, to serve

Method
Combine coriander, cumin, turmeric, pepper, chilli, garlic, ginger and lemon juice in a bowl to form a paste. Set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add half the beef. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until browned. Transfer to a bowl. Repeat with remaining oil and beef.
Reduce heat to medium. Add spice paste. Cook for 1 minute. Return beef to saucepan. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, or until meat is coated with paste. Add tomato paste and stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover. Cook for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until beef is tender.
Remove lid. Cook, uncovered, for a further 15 minutes, or until sauce has reduced and thickened slightly. Serve with rice and raita. Top with mint leaves.

(source: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7665/madras+beef+curry)


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GREAT RECIPE: Wild Shrimp and Peas With Fresh Curry Leaves and Coconut Rice

 Hello curry lovers! I have here a very interesting and I bet very tasty curry recipe. It's from a passionate chef named ANDREA REUSING and I thought of trying this recipe as soon as possible because it looks beyond gorgeous and yummy. Read the recipe below to know how interesting it is.

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WILD SHRIMP AND PEAS WITH COCONUT RICE

THE CHEF: Andrea Reusing

HER RESTAURANT: Lantern in Chapel Hill, N.C.

WHAT SHE IS KNOWN FOR: Asian-influenced fare made with top-notch North Carolinian ingredients.

Total Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 4

1 cup jasmine rice

1¼ cups water

¾ cup canned coconut milk

3 cups blanched green peas (fresh or frozen)

32 medium shrimp (about 1¼ pounds), peeled and deveined, with tails on

5 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil

1 cup fresh curry leaves (kalustyans.com)

1 heaping teaspoon garam masala (kalustyans.com)

1½ cups thinly sliced green garlic, both green and white parts (or four large garlic cloves, thinly sliced)

WHAT TO DO:

1.Set small pot with well-washed rice, water and pinch of salt over high heat. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until tender. Off heat, gently fold coconut milk into hot rice.

2. While rice cooks, prepare sauté: If using fresh peas, bring a medium sauté pan with 2 quarts water to a boil. Cook peas 1 minute, then drain. Spread peas out on towel-lined tray to cool and dry. (If using frozen peas, skip this step.)

3.Sprinkle shrimp with salt and let sit 5 minutes. Rinse, pat dry and set aside. Set large skillet over medium heat and swirl in ¼ cup coconut oil. Carefully add curry leaves and stand back while the leaves pop in hot oil. Once crispy, transfer leaves to towel-lined plate.

4.Add raw shrimp to hot sauté pan and cook 10-15 seconds. Add garam masala and garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add peas and cook 1 minute, or until peas are hot and shrimp almost cooked through. Season with salt and remove from heat.

5. Stir in remaining coconut oil, if desired. Add fried curry leaves and season with black pepper and salt to taste. Serve while hot, alongside coconut rice.

(source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303745304576357390086228616.html?mod=googlenews_wsj )



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Discover the variety of Goan cuisine with holidays in Goa

Just want to share this great article! To all curry and travel lovers,  READ THIS OUT LOUD.

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If you love trying different foods when you go abroad, then people taking holidays in Goa India are in luck because it has a huge variety of cuisines to try.

Over the years, Goa has grown in popularity as a tourist hotspot due to its beautiful coastline and eclectic culture, allowing visitors to experience a different side to India.

One of the main reasons to head to the western area of the country is to try its food - a mixture of east-meets-west cuisines.

There is the chance to sample some authentic Indian meals and the staple dish is a plate of boiled rice with fish coconut curry. Indeed, seafood plays a big part in Goan meals due to its position on the shoreline of the Arabian Sea.

You can expect to find lots of fish-based curries, as well as more unique choices, such as shark and lobster.

Its rich history of different occupants has helped shape its cuisines and its dishes are influenced by flavours from all around the world as a result. The nation was controlled by the Portuguese for more than 450 years after it was occupied by Afonso de Albuquerque in 1510.

This is why you'll to recognise a lot of Portuguese flavours in its food, such as peri-peri sauces, the yellow Caldin curry, as well as other Mediterranean fare. You'll also be able to find traditions stemming from Portugal, for example eating in al fresco restaurants, big lunchtime meals followed by siestas, rich flavours created by smoking foods and the playing of Portuguese music during dinner.

Indian flavours also have a big influence over Goan food and curries, patties, rice dishes and sweets are inspired by the ingredients and cooking methods found in other parts of the country.

Indeed, guests staying in the area, such as in cheap accommodation in Goa, will be able to see the variety of vegetation that brings its food to life. Coconut trees fringe its beautiful golden beaches, there are many chilli plants to help create the heat of the dishes and its turquoise waters are home to the seafood that makes up the main diet for Goans.

As the area has become a haven for holidaymakers over the years, there is now a huge range of different restaurants to choose from during your stay in hotels in South Goa. Whether you fancy Mediterranean meals, Middle Eastern cuisines or Pan Asian dishes, there is likely to be an eatery that will cater to your needs.

This blend of cultures carries on after dinner has ended and you can finish the night off by dancing in a salsa bar, listening to some jazz music or enjoying traditional Goan live entertainment.

But the main night-time activity is most definitely sampling, tasting and enjoying the rich and intense flavours of the coastal town. And you have to make sure you save room for desert as sweets are also an important component to a traditional meal.

One famous desert is the Bebinca - a layered cake flavoured with coconut milk and nutmeg - which you must have during your stay.

There's so much food to try that you might need to extend your holiday just to sample all the different flavours. But even if you haven't got enough time to try all the tastes on offer, make sure you have a range of eastern and western foods to experience the broad variety of cuisines available in Goa.


(source: http://www.travelbite.co.uk/travel-partners/articles/food-drink-holiday/discover-the-variety-of-goan-cuisine-with-holidays-in-goa-$1381762$1381388.htm)


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The academy of curry

This is a sad fact but we must all keep our fingers cross.. Curry after all is for everyone.

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The British curry industry may be facing a crisis, but there is a reassuring sense of calm from Kaushy Patel as she takes students through the correct way to make a chick-pea chole. "When I cook I like to have happy, positive thinking and before I start I always pray," she tells us as we watch her expertly fold in the freshly ground spices to the popular vegetable side dish. "When you are cooking, there must not be too much in your mind. You must just concentrate on one thing – the cooking. If there is any mistake, you don't shout."


Kaushy, 61, who learned to cook while watching her mother cater for the workforce on the family's farm in the village of Pardi, near Surat, in Gujarat, has already won the admiration of Gordon Ramsay, a man not known for his insouciant kitchen philosophy but who chose her engagingly simple Bradford eatery for his Ramsay's Best Restaurants series.

Today she is passing on her expertise to a new generation of wannabe curry cooks in the city that has been her home for the past four decades.

The inability of Britain's 12,000 curry restaurants to find enough qualified chefs has become a major threat to the future of the industry, not just in West Yorkshire but across the country, from Birmingham's Balti Triangle to London's Brick Lane. With 80,000 workers satisfying the nation's demand for the food, the cuisine is worth £3.5bn to the UK economy.

But one in four jobs for chefs is vacant, a result of tightened immigration rules that means it is harder to bring in skilled cooks from the Indian subcontinent. Changing social values within the Asian communities already here also mean aspirational young people often no longer choose to follow their parents into the family catering business. Front-of-house positions are proving even harder to fill.

This red-hot issue has been the subject of debate in Parliament, but ministers have repeatedly declined to make the curry cooks a special case. The recent wave of Eastern European immigrants, which has plugged labour gaps in other essential trades, has failed to fill the empty positions in this sector. The result is that one of the great culinary and economic success stories of the past 50 years of immigration could be set to falter.

In Bradford, which lays justifiable claim to being Britain's curry capital, the situation has become so severe that local restaurateurs have teamed up with the city's college to create the new International Food Academy, imparting the secrets of delicious dansaks, brilliant bhunas and perfect pakoras to eager students willing to learn the subtleties of Asian cuisine. Chefs looking to specialise can now study up to degree level while finessing their skills in Indian, Bangladeshi, Thai and even Chinese professional cooking.

Graham Fleming, a programme manager at Bradford College, said he had been overwhelmed with the interest in the course. He has 120 students studying hospitality and 50 on the professional cookery strand working towards their City & Guilds level two, with the option to continue to a degree level. "It was something that was very obvious but was just not developed yet by anyone else," he says. "We hope this will be rolled out in the rest of the country."

The idea for an international cooking course was conceived when it became clear that restaurants in Bradford were closing because of the chef shortage. Mr Fleming has enrolled staff from some of the city's top curry houses – including Omar Khan's, Akbars, Nawaab, Mumtaz, Aagrah and Kaushy Patel's Prashad – to offer masterclasses and kitchen time to students.

A former chef who likes to make curries at the weekend, Fleming believes the traditional chef techniques – understanding flavours, hard work and the ability to withstand pressure – are transferable to the training of a prospective curry master. The important thing is building up knowledge of how the various spices combine and affect each ingredient.

Jemma Robinson, 20, is frying some pakoras but admits the idea of working in one of the local curry houses had never occurred to her – until now. "It was my mum who really pushed me to do it, but I am really glad because I am really enjoying it," she says. "It wouldn't bother me working in a curry house. When I told my friends what I was doing, they all said: 'Well, you can make me something to eat then.'"

Joining me over the pot of sizzling cumin seeds are students Lavdije Shala, 23, from Kosovo, and Only Senga, 30, from Zimbabwe. They hope to open restaurants of their own. Neither of them has cooked curries before and the spicy dishes are unknown in the national cuisines of their respective lands, yet both are learning rapidly and enjoying the experience.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen – which is soon to take delivery of its own tandoor oven – students are busy working away to produce a mouth-watering array of dishes under the watchful eye of the head chef, Colin Burt. On the menu today is a delicious-looking Bengali mackerel curry, samosas and roti breads. Despite 36 years of experience in the industry, Burt admits he has acquired a lot of skills while helping out in the kitchens of a leading local curry house to prepare for the course. As we watch Kaushy prepare her chick-pea dish, he says: "If it is good enough for Gordon Ramsay, then it is certainly good enough for me."

The restaurant business has come a long way in Bradford. The first curry houses were literally that – front rooms with a few tables and chairs to cater for the late-night mill workers and taxi drivers who couldn't stomach works canteens or whose colleagues didn't like the smell of the food they brought with them to their shifts.

Late-night drinkers from the pub soon got a whiff of what they were missing and from humble origins in the 1960s, the restaurants have developed into national chains. With his diamond earrings and Union Jack cufflinks, Bobby Patel, the operations director of Prashad, is typical of the modern breed of young British-Asian entrepreneur.

He admits that curry houses were closed to people outside the communities, with owners often willing to hire staff only from similar backgrounds to their own. But that is changing, he says. While there are people like his mother still willing to pass on their knowledge acquired in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh, the authentic skills will not be lost, he says. But new ideas are also needed. "We need to change the expectations and get unemployed white kids as well as Asian kids into the restaurants," he says. "Often it is an opportunity they have not thought about before. Of course the question is: 'How well will they be able to cook the cuisine?' But working with the college means we can impart these skills at a very early stage. The industry is changing really quickly and that change is being driven by what customers what."

One of the developments new entrants will have to take on board is the growing demand for locally sourced produce. "We don't want to buy okra that has travelled 3,000 miles if we can do something with locally grown asparagus that tastes even better," Patel says. "We want to get to the stage where we can go to the garden and pick what we need and cook it right there and then for the customer. That is how it is done in India and that is how we would like to do it here."

Patel says it has become too expensive and time-consuming to bring in trained chefs from the Indian subcontinent and restaurateurs must work with the skills they have on their doorsteps. Besides, the weight of expectation can prove too much for some new arrivals, who may also struggle to adapt to life in Britain, he says.

Fleming says this is good news for British chefs, who can expect to start their careers earning around £16,000 in the simplest establishments, but progressing to between £30,000 and £45,000 for head-chef posts in the best restaurants. Those who make the Michelin-star grade for their food can earn £200,000.

"In the past they were sometimes seen as cheap labour, but this is changing fast," he says.

"There are good opportunities to earn a decent living as a curry chef and an even greater opportunity to start a business in the UK."

The merchants of the East India Company sparked Britain's love affair with the curry. Bengali seamen serving aboard the ships established the first permanent Asian populations in London. The commercial production of curry powder in the late 18th century made their favourite cuisine more readily available and it soon began to crop up on the menus of the capital's eateries.

The Hindustanee Coffee House on Portman Square, established in 1809, enjoys the distinction of being the first recorded exclusive curry restaurant. During the Victorian period the food fell out of fashion, only to begin its long march to culinary acceptance in 1927 with the opening of Veeraswamy's, one of Winston Churchill's favourites, in London's Mayfair. The restaurant was bought in 1935 by "curry king" the MP Sir William Steward, who ran the establishment for 40 years.

After the the Second World War, curry houses began to appear in big cities and ports, where they were mostly staffed by ex-sailors who were trained on the job. The influx of Punjab and Pakistani immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s saw a rapid expansion in the restaurants, although most catered for members of their own communities recruited to work in the textile industries.

Birmingham's first recorded Indian restaurant was The Darjeeling, a café that opened in 1945, giving birth to the Midlands' Balti-house culture. The first Indian restaurant in Glas
gow was the Taj Mahal in 1954, where menus were basic and service fast. But the Shish Mahal then opened, providing a higher-class service and décor. This style soon became a common theme everywhere, with a shift from cafés to chains.

(source: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-academy-of-curry-2291898.html )

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City chef is named Curry King 2011

Find out who's the newest King in CURRY! Read more below.

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Top chef Monir Mohammed was named Scotland’s Curry King at a glitzy bash celebrating all that’s good about the popular dish.

The patron of West End restaurant Mother India, Mr Mohammed was honoured at the Scottish Curry Awards 2011 at the city’s Thistle Hotel.

He was hailed “a curry lover, a curry crusader and curry ambassador,” whose heart lies in the kitchen from where he has steered Scots towards authentic Indian dishes.

Organised by food website www.hungryhouse.co.uk, Monday’s awards bash, held was attended by 700 people including STV’s Michelle McManus, Mohammed Sarwar, MSPs Hanzala Malik and Humza Yousaf.

Shane Lake, of hungryhouse.co.uk, said: “The awards proved to be a runaway success with an excellent turnout and a terrific atmosphere.

“It was a fun and vibrant night, representing the best of Asian cuisine and Scotland’s curry trade.

“This year’s awards have been successful in raising both money for charity and the profile of the Scottish curry community.”

Curry Lover of the Year Award went to radio presenter Tam Cowan while Asda scooped Best Supermarket Curry.

Team of the Year Award went to Ashoka Johnstone for the second year in a row and Chef of the Year was presented to Ajmal Mushtaq of Mushtaq’s Restaurant, Hamilton.

Takeaway of the Year went to Banana Leaf, Glasgow while Restaurant of the Year went to the city’s Balbir’s and owner Balbir Sumal said: “It’s a great win, especially considering we run quite a low-key operation.

“The restaurant business is all about word of mouth and we’ve worked hard to stay on top of our game.

The Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 was given to Edinburgh businesswoman Mrs Unis.

The ceremony included performances from the Blud Street Dancers, as well as Rameet from dance group Punjabi No1.

The Scottish Curry Awards’ official charity partner is the Scottish Spina Bifida Association, for which more £18,000 has been raised so far.

 (source:  http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/editor-s-picks/city-chef-is-named-curry-king-2011-1.1103417)


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SEAFOOD CURRY: Fish

Are you in the mood of some curry but afraid you don't want to include any red meat? Then we have a seafood special curry recipe just for you!!

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Fish Curry Recipe

Ingredients

250g fish fillet (cut into cubes)

1 Medium size tomato (chopped into cubes)

1 small sized onion (diced)

2 tablespoons of cooking oil

2 teaspoons of garlic paste

½ teaspoon of red chilli powder

1 teaspoon of coriander powder

1 teaspoon of cumin powder

½ teaspoon of turmeric powder

Kefir lime leaves (for aroma)

1 teaspoon of salt for taste   

Method

1. Heat oil in fry pan.
2. Put chopped onion into hot oil.
3. Fry until golden brown.
4. Add garlic paste and kefir lime leaves – add ¼ cup of water and keep frying for 30 seconds.
5. Add all the spices (chilli, coriander, cumin and turmeric) fry on medium heat for 1 minute.
6. Add fish and tomato – keep cooking for 4 to 5 minutes.
7. Can add small amount of water to 
8. 
   
1.  make gravy

                     

(source: http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2011/05/fish-curry-recipe.html)

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NEWEST TIME SAVER: microwavable curry that WHISTLES when cooked

There's a new invention in town! A curry that sounds like a kettle. Check it out!

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Designed as the ultimate in modern convenience, microwave meals can still feel like a fiddly affair.

There’s certainly a skill in adjusting the timing for your particular machine to avoid turning the sauce into a mouth-melting plasma, and dodging the scalding steam as you peel back the lid to stir.

But a new kind of ready meal has an old-fashioned solution to these problems – pressure-cooker packaging that whistles like a traditional kettle when it’s done.

A British supermarket is launching a range of six curries utilising the Swedish technology, which uses a valve in the film lid to create a vacuum after the meals are cooked in the factory – sealing in nutrients, textures and flavours and keeping out bacteria.

This same valve whistles when the meal is done, ensuring the meal is removed from the microwave before it is overcooked. There is no need to prick the lid or stir mid-way through cooking.

A spokesman for MicVac, the company behind the technology, told The Grocer magazine: ‘You put the product in the microwave, don’t have to stir it halfway through, hear it whistle and it’s ready. It’s a step change in the food industry. 

‘We’ve got a Michelin-starred chef that’s been using it in Sweden.’

The Indian curries will hit Tesco supermarket shelves next month. It is not yet known what dishes will be on offer or how much they will cost.

A spokesman for S&R Foods, which is producing the curries, said: ‘The technology allows us to achieve things that were thought impossible with chilled meals, such as using raw garnishes in-pack and using 100 per cent fresh ingredients in every meal, but still with a 30-day shelf life.’

Tesco will be the first major supermarket to use the packaging in the UK, although it is already being used in a range S&R created for Makro last year.

The magazine said a similar process is being used in a vending machine that sells hot ready meals.

(source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1387393/The-REALLY-convenient-microwave-meals-Curries-whistle-cooked-dont-need-stirring-piercing-beforehand.html)


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MADHUR JEFFREY: The Mistress of Spices

It's nice to hear a woman's great dedication and passion for the world's famous CURRY.
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Indian food expert Madhur Jaffrey tells Lucy Corry why she's never too busy to cook.

The phrase "time poor" could have been invented for Madhur Jaffrey. As a celebrated actress, award-winning writer, culinary expert, public speaker, teacher and grandmother, the 77-year-old has a schedule that would tire someone half her age. But rather than retire or rest on her laurels, Jaffrey has been busy reinventing herself.

Her latest book, Curry Easy, is the culmination of more than a decade of research and recipe testing to find shortcuts to cooking the cuisines from the subcontinent without sacrificing flavour.

"People say they love Indian food and cook it on weekends but feel they can't do it on the spur of the moment," she says, on the phone from her home in New York.

"I know what that's like because I'm pressed for time too, and I don't like being rushed. So I thought I would look for simpler dishes - every country has complex dishes and simple ones - of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and develop techniques to cook them.

"For curry you usually have to brown the spices, then the ginger and garlic, then the meat, so it can be quite a complicated process. So I did a little experimenting.

"I rubbed all the spices nicely into the meat and let it marinate overnight in the fridge, then the next day I put it in a hot oven and let it get nice and brown on the top and on the bottom. Then I covered it and let it braise and the end result was a lovely curry. That technique works beautifully for many dishes.

"Stir fries can be done using the same process, of letting all the dry spices marinate the meat before you stir-fry it. Indians never used to have refrigerators or ovens, but they would have come across these techniques if they did."

Purists may be aghast at the thought of curry in a hurry, but Jaffrey has the pedigree to get away with it. After growing up in Delhi, Jaffrey learned to cook as a homesick drama student in London, using handwritten recipes her mother sent her in the post.

While her acting garnered good reviews, her talents in the kitchen were even more sought after. Jaffrey's first book, An Invitation to Indian Cooking was first published in 1973 and remains in print today. She's written almost 30 more cookbooks since then, as well as a volume of memoir and several books for children.

"There are three generations of people cooking from my books now," she laughs. "I think there are some people who learn from their parents but, for many people, cookbooks are the only way they learn to cook."

These days they also learn from watching TV - Jaffrey has presented several BBC cooking shows and is quick to see the good side. "Part of me detests the idea of food as a game show and I know that there are a lot of couch potatoes out there who don't ever cook, but you can see the good it is doing," she says.

As well as cooking - and writing - Jaffrey continues to have a busy acting career, with more than 20 films to her name. She's recently finished filming her latest project, A Late Quartet, in which she stars alongside Christopher Walken and Philip Seymour Hoffman. "Life is a real mixture of things, cooking, writing, acting, doing cooking demonstrations, speaking at film screenings, teaching."

She and her second husband, violinist Sanford Allen, eat at home most of the time because it's easier than dining out. "New York is a wonderful place for eating out but we are very busy and we don't have the time to spend three hours in a restaurant. Also, we prefer the food at home. There's nothing that a restaurant has that I can't make at home," she says.

"We eat everything at home, but it's very simple and easy."

- The Dominion Post

(source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/4987486/Meet-the-mistress-of-spices)

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Hot to make CURRIED CRAB CAKES

I found some pretty cool curry recipes today but this one definitely caught my attention because it is not something you usually hear nor taste. Here's how you make the very known CURRIED CRAB CAKES

Curried crab cakes


Here's what you need to prepare first:


Ingredients: 
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons curry powder
4 green onions, minced
1 green chili, such as jalapeno, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 piece (1/2-inch long) ginger root, peeled, minced
1 pound claw crab meat
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
Canola oil


HERE'S HOW YOU DO IT:


1. Melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add curry powder; cook until powder darkens slightly and turns fragrant. Add green onion, chili, garlic and ginger; cook until garlic is golden, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.

2. Gently mix crab, eggs, bread crumbs, pistachios, parsley, salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Form mixture into 18 balls; flatten each ball into a cake.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Fry a few cakes at a time (don't overcrowd the pan), 2 minutes per side. Replenish oil as needed. Keep finished cakes warm while cooking remainder. Serve with chutney on the side.




Easy and yummy, right?




(source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/sc-food-0429-fast-crab-20110504,0,529898.story?page=1&utm_medium=feed&track=rss&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20chicagotribune%2Ffood%20%28chicagotribune.com%20-%20Food%2FGood%20Eating%29&utm_source=feedburner )










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Air Itam grannies' fabulous curry noodle

It's very amazing that there are people out there who are really dedicated to what they are doing like in this article. Regardless of their age, they are still making their good curry noodle to give everybody some taste. Curry lovers for the win!

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PENANG: Early in the morning near the Air Itam market in Penang, a pair of grannies is selling curry noodle beside the stream. Most of the people in Penang know very well about them selling curry noodle squatting at the stall.

The stall is owned by sisters Lim Kui Siang, 78, and Lim Kui Lai, 76, living in nearby Kampung Pisang. The two sisters started to help their mother run the curry noodle business since the were very young, and have since taken over the stall after their mother's death.

According to Kui Siang, her mother started the curry noodle business during the Japanese occupation and their noodle still tastes the same today as 60 years ago. Over the years, the Lim sisters have been waking up at about four in the morning to prepare the ingredients, boil the soup and carry everything to the stall on a shoulder pole.

In order to savour the mouth-watering curry noodle, customers have to wait patiently for their food. Sometimes, they may even have to serve the food themselves.

Even though the stall is simple and crude, it couldn't stop the customers craving for the sisters' delicious offering. Some 12 to 15kg of meehoon is required on any ordinary day, twice as much during the weekends and public holidays. The stall is open for business whole year round except three days of CNY break.

Waiting patiently

A well dressed lady customer was seen walking towards the stall to order her food. She found a tray at the stall and placed three bowls of noodle on it and walked away. After a while, she came back with the empty bowls and gently put them beside the dishes waiting to be washed before she said goodbye to the grannies.

There was another Indian man holding a bowl of curry noodle and started to eat his food the moment he found a vacant seat next to the stall. After finishing his food, he turned his body around and waited patiently for the grannies to fill his bowl with an additional serving of meehoon.

After finishing his second serving, the customer sat quietly looking at the grannies for her to collect his money.

Both the grannies are getting old and having difficulty to move around, so they have to employ someone to help deliver the prepared ingredients to the stall on bicycle and help out at the stall.

The traffic at Air Itam is often congested and a vacant parking lot is hard to come by unless you come in a motorcycle or park your car at the Kek Lok Si foothill and walk to the stall.

Modern people pampered with all the comforts life has to offer may find it hard to tolerate the poor environment of taking their breakfast on the roadside. That said, it is not a bad idea for some people to try the grannies' curry noodle on a sunny morning.

(source: http://www.mysinchew.com/node/56761)

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TODAY'S RECIPE: Monica's Super Simple Chicken Curry

Today, we will be featuring a very basic curry recipe but in Monica's way. Monica Bhide is the author of THE EVERYTHING INDIAN COOKBOOK. Check this curry recipe out!

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Makes 4 to 5 servings

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 black cardamom pod

2 green cardamoms pods, bruised

2 whole cloves

1-inch cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

1 large red onion, finely chopped

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon pure red chili powder

1 teaspoon garam masala (store-bought or homemade), plus more to sprinkle

1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon ground coriander

Table salt

2 pounds skinless chicken pieces, white or dark meat

2 tablespoons minced cilantro

Sliced mild onion, for garnish (optional)

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf. When the spices begin to sizzle, add the onion, ginger and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is well browned, 5 to 7 minutes

Stir in the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes are almost dry and the oil begins to separate from the sides of the mixture, about 8 minutes.

Add the chili powder, garam masala, turmeric, coriander and salt to taste. Cook for another minute.

Add the chicken and cook until brown on all sides, 5 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly. Add 1 cup water, cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally and add more water if the sauce is drying up or if you want a thinner gravy. Add the cilantro and cook for another minute.

Serve hot, sprinkled with garam masala. Garnish with sliced onions, if desired.

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A REVELATION: The Taste of India

This article have highlighted some good points. This is definitely a must-read. Curry? Who's really the master of it? Who bore it?

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As more and more Indian chefs move out into the world, it’s being said that London has become the capital of modern Indian food. But the future of Indian food lies in the same place as its past – in India itself.

When most Indians go to restaurants it is either because we have no choice or because we want the kind of food we cannot get at home (either foreign food or the kind that requires tandoors etc.). Rarely do we go to a restaurant to see what a great chef can do with Indian food.

This means that we have, in effect, no restaurant tradition. If you look at the oldest Indian restaurants, they were usually created for people who were unable to eat at home and had no alternative but to eat out. The Udupi restaurants of Bombay, for instance, catered to South Indians working in the city who had left their families behind. The Muslim restaurants of Calcutta were frequented by working men.

When the middle class did go out to eat and chose an Indian option (especially in the post-Independence phase) it either went tandoori (the Moti Mahal rip-offs or the Pandara Road places in Delhi) or preferred a bastardised Punjabi cuisine (Kwality, Gaylord, Volga, Amber etc.) that no self-respecting Punjabi ate at home. In no case was the chef’s imagination rewarded and in nearly every case, nobody even knew who the chef was.

So how does a cuisine with no restaurant tradition and no respect for the vision of the chef adapt itself to the restaurant-focused and chef-crazy twenty-first century? Good question. Only I am not sure there are any good answers.

Most discussions of modern Indian food lead inexorably to London, often described (by people who live in London, mainly) as the new capital of Indian cuisine. There is a historical reason for this.

The first proper Indian restaurants (not meant for working men far away from home) in the world probably opened in London. They catered mainly to ex-East India company men who had developed a taste for Indian food during their time in the sub-continent. Eventually, they died out (as did their patrons) to be replaced by cheap curry houses run by Bengalis from the Sylhet district of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

There were exceptions, of course. In 1966, Gaylord took Kwality-style Indian food (including tandoori chicken) to London and in 1973, Shezan, a Pakistani restaurant in Knightsbridge, was Egon Ronay’s Restaurant of the Year, an unprecedented honour for an Indian restaurant in that era.

But Indian food did not go properly upmarket and trendy till the Taj group (in the shape of Camellia Panjabi, then executive director of the Taj), opened the Bombay Brasserie in 1982. As good as the food at the Brasserie was, nobody (not even the Taj) claimed that it was a breakthrough in cuisine terms. This was simply good Indian food, reproducing authentic flavours with a few twists in presentation.

All that began to change in the Nineties. Till then, a successful upmarket Indian restaurant in London (as distinct from a Sylheti curry house) tried to do no more than imitate the food and ambience of a restaurant at a five star hotel in India.

In many ways the breakthrough was Chutney Mary, opened in London in 1996 by Namita Panjabi (sister of Camellia who would eventually leave the Taj to join Namita in London) which dared to experiment with Western-style presentation and introduced unusual flavours (such as lots of Goan and Anglo-Indian food) to London.

The success of Chutney Mary and the Brasserie led to a flood of upmarket Indian restaurants, some with Indian owners (Tamarind), some owned by big London groups (Zaika) and some with an entirely British clientele (The Cinnamon Club). As the cult of the celebrity chef finally caught on in Britain, these restaurants began pushing their chefs forward. Some argued that the Michelin guide followed the French tradition of recognising chefs rather than restaurants and so it made sense to promote the chefs.

A variety of Indian chefs, many of them drawn, bizarrely enough, from the Oberoi group which has no great reputation for Indian food in India, and some of whom were only coffee shop chefs, began to be launched by PR consultants as great Indian chefs: Vivek Singh (The Cinnamon Club), Atul Kochhar (Tamarind), Vineet Bhatia (Zaika), Cyrus Todiwala (a well-regarded Taj chef who made his name with Café Spice Namaste) etc.

It was the emergence of the super-chefs that led London restaurants to claim that their city was now the capital of Indian food. The first to get a Michelin star was Atul Kochhar who got one for Tamarind. He then moved to Benares and got a star there too. Vineet Bhatia got a star for Zaika, moved to his own Rasoi, got a star for the new place, opened another restaurant in Geneva and got yet another star. Sriram, a chef venerated in India for his work at Karavali in Bangalore, opened Quilon and finally got a star. And Camellia and Namita Panjabi’s Amaya (chef Karunesh Khanna) not only got a star but was also Restaurant of the Year when it opened.

The claim that these restaurants (and their chefs) have taken Indian food to the next level is based on several factors. First of all, they are chefs in the French tradition. You do not go to say, Rasoi to eat an authentic regional rogan josh. You go to see what a great chef like Vineet Bhatia can do with the flavours we associate with a rogan josh.

As is true of all great chefs, Bhatia will play around with flavours and presentation. He will drizzle truffle oil on his mushroom naan. He will infuse khichdis with flavour and serve them as side dishes. Most startlingly, he will push his makhni sauce (the gravy for butter chicken) into a gelato machine, turn it into an ice-cream and serve it next to a chicken dish.

At other restaurants, similar innovations abound. One of the tastiest dishes on the Amaya menu consists of fresh oysters with a ginger-coconut gravy. As Indians do not normally eat oysters on the half-shell, this is a first. At Quilon, Sriram does an Indian take on moules marinière, serving mussels with a Kerala gravy. These innovations led to the second claim advanced for these restaurants. At most Indian restaurants (even those in India) the menu seems remarkably similar: the same dishes crop up again and again.

But the London chefs have broken through that barrier. No two London Indian restaurants (at least in the premier league) have the same menu. This is a new generation of Indian food with new dishes being invented every day.

And the third and final claim is the simplest of all. A Michelin star is a mark of global recognition. How can we not admire chefs who have been honoured by Michelin and reviewed so favourably by British critics? They are people who have done India proud.
It is a powerful case made stronger by the fact that till recently, there has been nothing to compare the food of these chefs to. If you want to see how good Gordon Ramsay’s Royal Hospital Road restaurant is, you can compare it to three star Michelin restaurants in France and make an informed judgement. But given that we have no real restaurant tradition in India, what can you compare the London restaurants to?

And yet, the London chefs have their Indian critics. There is, first of all, the Indian taste factor. The vast majority of Indians I have met who have been to the expensive Indian restaurants in London have come back shaking their heads and refusing to go back. Few of them have liked the food.

The London lobby offers two defences. First of all, it says, because we have no proper restaurant culture in India, we are unwilling to accept any innovation. We want a simple rogan josh, a straightforward mutter-paneer, an ordinary seekh kabab or whatever. We cannot stomach the fact that the London chefs are serving new dishes. When we see something we have not come across before, we immediately conclude that “this is not Indian food” and close our minds. The second defence is that this is Indian food for the London market. It has to reflect the tastes of upmarket Brits who are used to expensive Italian or French restaurants. It is not meant for Indian palates.

Both defences are solid but it is not difficult to see why they do not convince Indians. It is all very well to say that Indian cuisine needs to move forward but at what stage does the food stop being Indian? Here, for instance, are some of the dishes recommended by the Michelin Guide at Benares: Soft shell crab with squid salad; Fried John Dory with peas and tomato chutney; grilled roe deer fillet with yellow pumpkin risotto and chocolate mousse with praline ice-cream.

There is a substantial lobby within the Indian food world which argues that all that the London chefs are doing is Frenchifying the food: plating it in the style of French restaurants so there is a prettiness to the presentation, reducing the spice levels for Western palates, using meats that are more popular in the West than in India (roe fillet, for instance), eliminating watery gravies, and creating food that seems more comprehensible to Western sensibilities.

This may well be a valid and interesting thing to do but it is not the only road forward. On the other hand, an indigenous restaurant tradition is developing in India and domestic chefs are doing many interesting things.

While you cannot call it a restaurant tradition in the strictest sense, there has always been a professional catering tradition in Lucknow and Hyderabad consisting of Muslim cooks who made the food for large weddings or celebrations on a freelance basis.

In 1977, when the Maurya Hotel opened in Delhi, Ajit Haksar, the legendary former chairman of ITC, was determined not to open the standard Kwality-style Indian restaurant that was ubiquitous in that era. He sought out Imtiaz Qureshi, a chef who ran a catering business in Lucknow, and hired him to handle the Indian kitchen at the Maurya.

Eventually, Imtiaz introduced his entire extended family to ITC and most of his sons, brothers-in-law, nephews, sons-in-law etc. were hired to work in the kitchen of the chain. But the breakthrough came in the late 1980s with the opening of the Dum Pukht restaurant.

Dum Pukht, a style of steam-cooking, has been a part of North Indian cuisine from medieval times (what was called Dum Poke by the Raj) but Imtiaz (and Manjit Gill, who was then executive chef at the Maurya) refined it for restaurant cooking. Then, they began updating traditional recipes.

The standout dish on their menu was the Dum Pukht biryani, an amalgamation of two different styles of biryani (Lucknow and Hyderabad) with many fresh touches. Each order was finished a la minute in the oven after a sheet of pastry had been placed over the dish to seal in the flavour. The biryani was not terribly authentic (it was certainly not the typical Avadhi pula o) but it became such a hit that its recipe soon became the standard for all upmarket restaurants everywhere in India.

Among Imtiaz’s other innovations was a rum-marinated raan (leg) of lamb also steam cooked under a pastry cover (purdah) along with cocktail onions and other flavourings. This was not a traditional dish but it quickly became a standard recipe.

Indian chefs argue that, away from the public eye and without the benefit of PR consultants, such innovations are constantly taking place. But like all successful innovations, they make their point so subtly that they rarely shock or startle diners. The true proof of their success is the speed with which they are quickly picked up by other chefs.


Among the most famous of these innovations is the black dal. Most North Indian restaurants serve some form of black dal, usually describing it as a traditional Punjabi dish. While it is true that a black dal has been cooked in Punjabi homes for generations, that dal is only a distant ancestor of the modern restaurant black dal.

Today’s black dal is only 50 or 60 years old. Like many of today’s North Indian classics, it was popularised (if not invented) by Delhi’s Moti Mahal restaurant which made tandoori chicken famous. It was at Moti Mahal that the makhni sauce (made with tomatoes, butter and cream) was popularised as a way of turning chicken tikka into a gravy dish (butter chicken or murgh makhni). When people asked for a dal that was as rich as the rest of the food, the makhni sauce was added to standard Punjabi black dal to create the restaurant dal we know today.

So, ask Indian chefs, is that dal an innovation or not? It is certainly more influential than some Michelin-approved kaddu risotto served in London.

If you believe Indian chefs, there are many such unsung innovations in Indian cuisines. For instance, the batter-fried bombil, a dish in which the Bombay duck fish (best known in its sun-dried form) is pounded to a thin fillet, coated in masala and then fried, which is a standard in coastal restaurants all over India, was probably invented by Bombay’s Gajalee restaurant. The crab in butter garlic, a favourite of European food writers on visits to Bombay, started out in the Chinese menu of Trishna restaurant (butter-garlic sauce is unknown on the South Indian coast) before becoming a so-called ‘coastal’ standard.

One of the criticisms Western food critics often make of Indian food is that it all looks the same: bowls of brown goo. This is not an unfair criticism but it stems partly from the fact that Indian food is meant to be shared. At a French or Italian restaurant, each guest orders individually. But an Indian meal usually involves a few dishes which are shared by everyone at the dining table.

Most upmarket Indian restaurants in London now try and plate their food so that each guest orders an individual dish. This has the advantage of helping reduce the brown goo problem because plates can be arranged prettily. But it also means that Indian food has to be reworked to suit the presentation.

A second and entirely valid criticism of Indian food is that it has scant respect for ingredients. Vegetables are cooked to nothingness. And chicken, meat and fish have many of their original flavours sucked out of them in the cooking process.

The point of much of Indian food (though not perhaps of tandoori cuisine which may help explain its popularity in the West) is the spicing. Far more important than the original taste of the ingredients is the way in which they are spiced.

This runs counter to the prevailing philosophy in the West where less is more and high quality ingredients have very little done to them in the cooking process. Chefs cooking for a Western audience make similar adjustments to Indian cuisine. Not only do the chilli levels go down but all spicing is usually reduced. A fish curry will become a piece of fish with a gravy underneath it. A rogan josh may show up as a lamb shank in a puddle of rogan josh curry. And so on.

Indians are prepared to be forgiving of this sort of adjustment in general. But many chefs from India argue that, in the process, the chefs cooking for Western audiences also tamper with Indian flavours. The gravy served below a sea bass may taste nothing like an Indian fish curry. The rogan josh gravy may lack the dish’s distinctive fat content.

The new area of conflict between chefs who cook in India and those who cook abroad is the authenticity of flavours. Are the upmarket London chefs bastardising Indian flavours – along with the presentation – in an effort to please English critics and the Michelin inspectors? Many Indian chefs insist that this is precisely what is going on.

Even as this argument rages, many Indian chefs have opened restaurants in India that marry Western style presentation with authentic Indian flavours. The most successful of these is undoubtedly Varq at Delhi’s Taj Mahal Hotel where Hemant Oberoi, India’s best known chef, mixes Western presentation (a mille-feuille for instance with a South Indian crab between the pastry layers) with Indian dishes though sometimes, when a dish requires traditional presentation, he dispenses with the Western plating. For instance, Oberoi’s Martaban Meat, cooked with pickle spices, comes to the table as a hearty curry in a pickle jar. In London, the dish would have consisted of a piece of lamb placed over a small pond of pickle sauce.

Varq is the most successful of the new wave of Indian restaurants but there are many others. Indian Accent, also in Delhi, is run by Manish Mehrotra, a chef who originally specialised in Thai food and who has lived in London. Mehrotra’s food is authentically Indian but his style is as smart as anything the London chefs can dish out.

At the Meridien Hotel in Delhi’s Connaught Place, Davinder Kumar, a chef trained in the French tradition, runs Monsoon which combines French cooking techniques with deliciously robust and earthy Indian flavours. Marut Sikka, a TV chef and food entrepreneur, owns Kainoosh at the DLF Mall in Delhi, and does a brilliant job of mixing classical Indian cuisine with more innovative dishes.

Bombay has been slower to catch on to the trend but ironically, it is London’s Michelin-starred Vineet Bhatia who runs the city’s most innovative restaurant. Bhatia’s Ziya is located at the exact same spot in the Oberoi Hotel where he once toiled as the chef at the Oberoi’s Indian restaurant. After some early hesitation, Bhatia decided not to compromise with Indian habits (no sharing portions of butter chicken for the whole table, for instance) and serves only plated food.

Even if you take the line that Westernised presentation is the future of Indian food – and there is no reason why we should accept that position – it is no longer necessary to go to London to find that kind of food. It is now readily available in India and most of the new restaurants serve a cuisine that is far more authentic than the UK version. After all, it is one thing to sell something to Brits as Indian food, quite another to sell it to Indians, who know their own cuisine.

When Brits go out to eat Indian food in London, they are eating a foreign cuisine just as Indians who go to an Italian restaurant in Delhi are eating something exotic. It is valid for the chef at the Indian Italian restaurant to tinker with the flavours to suit Indian palates. And it is as valid for the Indian chef to change his cuisine for Westerners.

But no cuisine can advance on the basis of food made for foreigners. The real evolution must happen in India and it must appeal to Indians. Fortunately, there is more of that going on than we may recognise at first.

At one level, there are the dishes created by restaurateurs over the years: tandoori chicken, black dal etc. These are more plentiful than we may realise. Even in the South, it’s not just coastal food that has been re-invented for restaurant guests. Even the medu vada, the staple of every south Indian canteen all over the country, is not a traditional dish. It was invented at the launch of a railway line near the town of Mettur.

At another, there is the assimilation of regional traditions into a new kind of north Indian cuisine. The Dum Pukht biryani which is neither entirely Lucknowi nor entirely Hyderabadi is one example. Most Indian restaurants – even those with no avant garde pretensions – serve a cuisine that is significantly different from the kind of restaurant food available three decades ago. The new dishes have emerged out of a synthesis of regional cooking styles.

And then of course there is the Frenchified school of Indian cooking. It may have started in London but it has many branches in India now. You can argue about whether the prettiness of plated presentation is against Indian tradition or whether the chefs necessarily respect the authenticity of Indian flavours. What you can’t dispute is that such restaurants do well all over the world and cannot be ignored. Some may serve food that causes self-respecting Indians to throw up. But equally, many are run by talented chefs who are genuinely innovative.

The truth is that there is no one way forward and no one capital of Indian cuisine. Those who claim that the London chefs are showing the way forward tend to underestimate the innovations taking place within India and make the mistake of arguing that Frenchification is the only route ahead. Equally, those who run down the London restaurants, saying that their food is not genuinely Indian, make the error of defining authentic Indian food too narrowly. At the start of the 20th century, 99 per cent of Indians had never heard of tandoori chicken. Does that mean that it is not an authentic Indian dish? Obviously it doesn’t: a great cuisine evolves over the years.

The important things to remember are (a) India is not a country like France. It is a sub-continent on par with Europe. Therefore, it does not lend itself to easy generalisations or classifications. At any given time, there is a lot happening in India – and to its cuisine – that may not be immediately obvious.

And (b) let’s never forget that the Indian middle class – the chief consumers of any restaurant cuisine – is only now coming of age. As the middle class grows in prosperity and influence, it will demand newer restaurants, better food and greater innovations in cuisine.
Is it likely that a handful of restaurants in a single British city can compete with the vastness of India and the affluence of the growing Indian middle class? London may have had a historical importance in the development of Indian food. And its chefs may have made some valid contributions.

But the future of Indian food lies in the same place as its past – in India itself.

(source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/The-Taste-of-India/Article1-688858.aspx)

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AMAZING FACT: Surprising Health Benefits Of Herbs, Spices

I am sure you guys already heard good news about curry's great benefit in one's health. I am also sure that it's all because of the herbs and spices it has but I don't think everyone knows the actions of the specific ingredients. It's a good thing that M. L. Kiser from foxreno.com elaborated these benefits. Happy curry eating!


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Some pretty powerful medicines are right in your herb or spice cabinet. Common every day herbs such as garlic, parsley, basil, oregano, turmeric, curry, rosemary and thyme, among others, also have medicinal properties, as well as vital nutrients.

One way to benefit the most from these herbs is to pick them and cook with the fresh herbs. The nutrients and healing properties are at their most potent with fresh herbs. If you can’t get fresh herbs, try to purchase the more recently dried forms. You can get these online, as well as at farmer’s markets or your local health food stores or co-ops. The dried herbs still have some nutritive and medicinal value, but many pre-packaged herbs are often left with hardly any nutritional or health value at all.

Curry, curcumin, turmeric, better known as, “Indian Spices,”can greatly help with the circulation, blood pressure and work to prevent heart disease, among other benefits. They contain a host of strong antioxidants that build up your immune system and fight “free radicals.” “Free radicals” are unstable organic molecules that bond with other molecules that cause aging, damage to your tissues and a host of diseases.

Antioxidants can prevent these “free radicals” from doing harm to your health. Most herbs have some powerful anti-oxidants, which is one of the reasons that more and more people are turning to the use of herbs for healing.

Circumin is an ingredient in turmeric that is not only an antioxidant, but has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, as well. It’s the ingredient that gives turmeric its yellow coloring.

Turmeric, the ground-up roots of a shrub from tropical areas like India and Asia, has been used in India for centuries as a whole body cleanser. It can help with digestion, treat fevers, infections, helps with gall bladder and liver problems, many types of arthritis pain, helps to burn fat and recently it has been discovered that it can help in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and similar diseases.

It contains antiplatelet substances that can keep your blood from clotting easily, which is helpful for warding off heart disease. It has been found that it also lowers homocysteine levels, one of the signs of potential heart attack and helps to reduce oxidation of the plaque on the arterial walls.

Curry contains turmeric, but it also contains many other spices, so you may want to add turmeric to your diet along with curry for greater benefits. Do not use it if you are already on any blood-thinning medication, as it can increase the effects.

Garlic, considered both a vegetable and an herb, has powerful antioxidant, antifungal, antiparasitic, antiviral and anti-inflammant properties. It can ward off just about any ailment or disease including the common cold, many viruses and the flu. It has been shown to decrease the chances of many cancers, Parkinson’s and even Alzheimer’s disease. But its odor and flavor is every bit as powerful as its health benefits and for this reason many people shy away from this valuable little misunderstood gem of an herb.

The ancient Egyptians fed garlic to their slaves to keep them strong and healthy. It detoxifies the entire body, strengthens our blood vessels, helps our immune system functions and has even been shown to lower blood pressure.

Being antiparasitic, it can also be fed to your pets or the oil rubbed into their skin to ward off many pests like fleas. Used often in Italian, Indian and Asian cooking, this little wonder of the world is probably our body’s best friend.

Common basil, holy basil and sweet basil are super tasty herbs and very useful if you have pain such as arthritis pain, rheumatic pain and headaches, as well as disorders of the nervous system. It contains lots of iron and calcium and has been used to relieve the pain of bee stings, insect and snake bites. It can also calm an upset or nervous stomach and relieve nausea.

Garden sage is also known as salvia officianalis (this is not to be confused with the salvia divinorum that is used as a hallucinogenic; we are talking specifically about culinary sage). Although there are several types of edible sage, you should be certain of the variety that you are using.

Garden sages or culinary sages possess many vital nutrients such as vitamins and antioxidants like vitamins A, C, iron and calcium. Sometimes used to increase mental clarity, it can also relieve gas or bloat, help with indigestion and the circulation; it’s an anti-inflammant and can also be used to reduce any inflammation in the throat, mouth and tonsils. It can sooth the mucus membranes and even be used in a compress as it is also an anti-microbial.

Rosemary, an antiparasitic, antiseptic, antidepressant herb with vitamins A, C and iron, soothes the digestive system, helps to relieve headaches and stress related depression. It can also be used to treat muscle pain, neuralgia and sciatica. It helps with memory problems, fight fluid retention; is used to stimulate hair growth even promotes shinier hair. Those with medical conditions like seizure disorders should also be aware of the fact that rosemary and sage can increase seizure activity if used to often or in great amounts.

Wild marjoram oregano, an antioxidant, antimicrobial, antiviral, antiseptic, antifungal and anti-parasitic herb can help to boost the immune system. It’s full of vitamins such as A, C, calcium and iron. It can be used to treat infections of the tooth, gum, mouth, sinuses, respiratory tract, helps with digestion and can increase the appetite. Used often in Italian recipes, this herb has a strong odor and flavor that can, if not used carefully, overpower the taste of just about any food. Just ½ of a teaspoon of fresh oregano daily has as many antioxidants as you would get in about 3 cups of spinach!

Dill -- it’s not just for pickles! It can relieve colic, gas, indigestion and actually increases the production of breast milk.

Thyme, an antiparasitic, antiseptic herb with vitamins A, C, and Iron, not only enhances the immune system's functioning, it also treats respiratory ailments, sore throats, bronchial problems, infections, whooping cough, asthma and many digestive problems. It also can relieve muscle tension and pain. Not only that, but you can also use it as an astringent!

One of the best diuretics in the world is parsley. Also loaded with antioxidants, calcium and iron, this common herb used in many soups, salads and casseroles can help to relieve water weight. It also helps with indigestion, colic, gas, is antiparasitic and helps with thyroid functioning.

It’s sometimes used to treat cancer, can be used to treat kidney problems and gall stones and sometimes used by women to aid with menstruation.

As for lemon balm, while it’s great for planting around patios and decks, because of its lemony scent, it also attracts beneficial bees and keeps away the nastier insects. It’s also a powerful herb for reducing anxiety, stress and it can help you to sleep.

Lemon balm can be used to lower blood pressure, treat fevers, infections and calms the digestive system.

Peppermint and spearmint are not only great tasting and great smelling herbs, but they will aid with digestive problems, calm heartburn and help relieve nausea. Plant them with your lemon balm around the patio, deck or porch for some great downwind aroma.

They can help to relieve chills, fevers, hives, headaches, colic, nausea and heartburn. Drinking these in tea form regularly will help to promote better digestion and stave off many digestive disorders. They are fantastic for baking and use in many candies.

Another spice that helps with digestive problems is ginger. This spice, used regularly, can strengthen the adrenal glands, promotes better lung functioning and can help with lowering the blood pressure. It’s tasty in baked goods and candies or even with oatmeal.

Cinnamon, like ginger, aids with digestive problems and helps to lower the blood pressure. Added to ginger on plain oatmeal with a little cane sugar or honey, this spice can really be of great health benefit. Just one teaspoon of cinnamon has the same amount of antioxidants that you would get in about 1 cup of pomegranate juice.

This wonderful tree bark, ground and eaten daily, according to studies, can help to reduce your blood sugar, lower triglycerides, balance your cholesterols, can reduce the chances of stomach ulcers and yeast infections and it can thin the blood, so if you are on a blood thinner already, you may want to check with your doctor before using therapeutic levels of cinnamon.

A great antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant, it’s much healthier if you don’t take it with sugar, but use stevia, cane sugar or honey instead for even more health benefits.

The bay leaf, used commonly in Mediterranean and Cajun dishes, can actually help you to fend off many cancers. A great source of vitamins A and C, calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium and manganese, this slightly bitter-tasting plant is a powerful medicine for building the immune system.

Also an anti-inflammant, it can help relieve the pain of arthritis, rheumatism and more. An antifungal and antibacterial, it can also help diabetics by helping the body to process insulin in a more efficient manner. It’s helpful for digestive problems, warding of heart disease, digestive problems, for treating headaches and migraines, for urinary problems and helps with menstruation.In the past it was used to treat bee stings, insect bites, bruises, cuts and snake bites.

These are just a few of the common herbs and spices that are used in cooking every day. Used in small amounts daily, they can be of great benefit, and provide some extremely tasty dishes, but they do come with some warnings if you are already on medications (they can potentially interfere in the larger doses), so before you chock all of that cinnamon on your oatmeal or toast, make sure that it won’t interfere with medication that you are already taking.

Be safe and enjoy your meals.

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