Feelin' hot hot hot (Patak's Original Madras Curry Paste)

Member Name: mikebelgrave

Product:	Patak's Original Madras Curry Paste
Date:	28/07/08 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tastes great and authentic and keeps for ages in the fridge

Disadvantages: None

I'm a big fan of curry and in fact over the years I have spent a lot of time making my own and I do like to use all the proper ingredients. This does take a lot of time and experimentation, but if you love cooking as much I do then you know that the trail and error part is just as much fun as getting it right.

Many years ago someone turned me onto the Patak's range of pastes and I was hooked. I love the Madras paste as it is really spicy, but not in an over powering burning way that you get sometimes in takeaways, ready meals and even in restaurants. The chilli is evenly spread through the paste so you don't have suddenly mouthfuls of chilli choking you by surprise.

It is also versatile as you can just quickly stir fry some diced chicken with some onions and throw in a teaspoon of this and hey presto, an instant curry in a few minutes.

I never use curry sauces, for some reason they never taste, look, smell or feel right. In fact sauces to me feel like pasta sauces with a few curry ingredients thrown in. I do realise that in the UK our curries aren't authentic, but I find sauces really are beyond the pale. The pastes are closer to what I make myself, even the ingredients on the side are accurate. Plus if you haven't used the jar for a while you just need to is stir a little bit of vegetable into the paste if it's gone a bit dry. It keeps for ages. Top stuff and it's not very expensive for how much you get and how long it lasts.

In an age where we're trying to watch what we put in ourselves due to fat, salt and chemicals, you can do no wrong than have a few jars of this in your cupboard.

Summary: As authentic as you can get from a jar