Coles is stocking a new range of Indian curry sauces on its shelves, created by British chef Anjum Anand.
The Spice Tailor range was launched in Britain two years ago in the upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose. Now, the range of eight sauces is coming to Coles’ supermarket shelves.
Anand cooked up the Spice Tailor range with the purpose of exposing non-Indians to different regional Indian cuisines. She also wanted to make her native food lighter and more accessible.
“I grew up eating and cooking Indian food. I love it and I wanted to make it easier for more people to enjoy delicious and healthy home-cooked Indian cuisine,” Anand said.
“Australia has such a vibrant food culture but Indian has often been overlooked, especially on supermarket shelves. We’re thrilled to be introducing the range and I hope that Australians will fall in love with The Spice Tailor and opt for a Punjabi Tomato Curry over a Pad Thai.”
The range was launched yesterday (3.7.13) with the help of marketing company Liquid Ideas, owned by Stuart Gregor. Gregor hosted a lunch in his home, attended by Food magazine, where Anand cooked up a banquet with her range of sauces.
She explored regional India by cooking with her Keralan Coconut Curry. Located in the south-west region of India on the Malabar Coast, this state is known for its abundance of coconuts. ‘Kera’ means coconut.
Anand cooked prawns with coconut curry, mustard seeds, oil and coriander. For those of the vegetarian persuasion, she modified this and substituted prawns with eggplant.
She used Punjabi Tomato Curry from Northern India to make a curry with paneer (cottage cheese) and capsicum. The meal also included Rustic Rogan Josh curry with lamb.
“My food mantra is you need to enjoy what you eat,” Anand told Food magazine.
“I like to have a little bit of honesty in my food. So I want it to have some heritage. I’ve brought out some proper regional heritage of India so we’ve got Keralan curry, I’ve got a curry from Mangalore, and I’ve got the Punjabi tomato curry.”
Her range also includes the South Indian Mangalore Herb Curry, which has flavours of coriander, mint and coconut.
She said she hopes her range will show that not all curries taste the same.
“I really do believe that if we get people to try it and you like Indian food you’ll like this. We have our fingers crossed that we make enough noise to get everyone to try it,” Anand said.
The range of curry sauces will be on Coles’ shelves from Monday 8 July for $4.99 RRP.