Sizzling! (Knorr Sizzle 'n Stir Curry)

Member Name: esthersmile

Product:	Knorr Sizzle 'n Stir Curry
Date:	18/12/03 (1095 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Novelty value of two jars is quite fun, Tasty (especially the Balti)

Disadvantages: Tastes a little artificial, More expensive

Product: Knorr Sizzle n' Stir (Korma and Balti varieties)
Price: Around £1.89 (although i got 2 for this price as they were on special offer)
Serves: Two

Intro:
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I've tried many many curry-in-a-jar type efforts lately and have largely been disappointed. They are usually either too hot or too sweet, or too salty. I've never been able to capture that proper restaurant curry taste (although maybe it's more the alcohol-fuelled atmosphere that adds to going out for a curry than the food itself!).

Packaging:
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The packaging is very different to normal products of this type, as it consists of two jars of sauce held together by a plastic wrapper. This is good because it avoids any problems of spillage (a la sachets) and it's secure so you're unlikely to find that they have separated in your shopping bag. It's also cool because the smaller jar is very cute (don't ask me why, i think I'm a bit strange) I have washed mine out and it is now awaiting a useful purpose.

Product:
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The idea of the two jars is that you fry the meat (I used chicken breast fillets) in the richer sauce in the smaller jar, which contains special spices and oils, to give it flavour, then you cook it in the korma sauce in the big jar to give the curry sauce. Apparently this makes the curry "more authentic", since the meat willbe more infused with flavour than if you have simply cooked it in a sauce.

So i opened the little jar, spooned it into the pan, and was rather surpised to find that it looked like what i can only describe as glitter glue. The oil was all shiny and it had all separated out, so i felt like decorating my christmas cards with it (the smell put me off!). however, it did smell tasty, and coated the chicken nicely. An advantage of this is that i didnt have to use any other oils, although i did suspect that there was more oil in there t
han i would have used without, making it rather unhealthy. The same went for the balti version, which looked and smelt identical. I think that in fact the spices are probably the same for each variety, and they just change the sauce in the big jar (aha! Knorr have been rumbled with their money-saving schemes!)

Once the chicken was cooked through, i then poured in the korma sauce. This also smelt lovely, although it did look a bit odd (a bright yellow colour). The same with the balti, although that did at least look like something edible.

So, now for the taste test.

Korma:

This was nice at first, having an authentic korma taste, although i did find it a little sweet (not in a "Dude Where's My Car?" kind of way...) and sickly after a while. I think that's due to the fact that I'm not a great fan of Korma. I did find the taste a little artificial though, as if too much sugar had been put in deliberately to pacify those who don't really like curry that much. It was definitely edible though, and people who do like Korma a lot would probably really like it (my boyfriend did). So, 3/5 for the Korma.

Balti:

Now this is more like it - a curry which is actually tasty and hot. Hard as it is to believe, finding a curry which is edible and spicy is nigh on impossible in the supermarket. most of them are either so hot you can't taste anything, or it will taste like it was only allowed to look at the spices before being put into the jar. But no, this curry was tasty, and just the right "heat". The spiciness wasn't off-putting, but simply added to the taste. It still had that artificial aftertaste though, so 4/5 for the blati version.

Conclusion:
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The novelty value of the tiny jar might wear off after a while, so how does the end result compare to other curries in jars? Well, for the extra 30p or so, it's not that much better than others that you
can get (Sharwood's for example, are very good without all the messing about with separate jars) and the environmental issues of having separate jars make it a little dubious. however, the standard of curry was very good,a dn i did like the idea of frying the chicken is the "glitter glue" first as it made me forget that i was cooking convenience food. The taste was good, but again, not that much better than the others, even with all the hassle. So, if this is on special offer i would recommend grabbing a couple of jars, otherwise stick to the other kind.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all by the way! :o)

Summary: