Punjaban is taking #nationalcurryweek by storm with it's range of curry bases
I was sent a selection of these curry sauce bases to review, exactly what I love doing spending time in the kitchen! Here's what I thought:
Needing to advertise our nation's favourite dish with a curry week seems an odd one to me, but I'm more than happy to cook curry especially when I can get my 'spice on'!
Trouble is, to create 2 different curries and sides can usually take quite a while, so these Punjaban curry bases got me thinking. I could do a Naga one for me, and a butter chicken one for my wife all without spending hours on it - perfect!
We were both very happy to see that not only did they use totally normal and real ingredients, they sauces are also free from Gluten & Wheat, Yeast, Ghee, Dairy, Added Sugar, Nuts, Artificial ingredients, Artificial additives, MSG’s, E numbers, Artificial preservatives. Cool!
When Gurjeet went to university he missed his mum’s home cooked curries so much that Charanjit sent her sauce up for him to use. This started to become a regular occurrence and she began to cook a batch every day! Little did she know that Gurjeet had enormous demand for the delicious sauce from his friends and he had started selling it around the campus for beer money! When the truth finally revealed itself the family knew there was a demand for something more traditional and that is how Punjaban was born.
On the left is the Naga chilli base which I cooked with beef. I followed the recipe as instructed on the side of the jar and it turned out really well. I like a thicker sauce so next time wouldn't bother with adding the extra water. The spice was indeed hot (which I like), and the naga flavour was superb; certainly real naga in there not just hot spice powder, and all the better for it.
At the top of the pic above, the butter chicken was also good and was nice to do an less spicy alternative. Handily the recipes required normal supermarket pack sizes of meat, which made life easier I guess.
The bombay potato was superb as it's something I don't usually have, and with the addition of par-boiled potatoes only took 5 mins to make. Sorted!
As suggested on the jars, the addition of fresh coriander really makes these sauces pop, and adds a nice fresh touch.
Biggest surprise of the evening was perhaps the interestingly spelled 'Fiesty' apple and mango chutney - totally brilliant. Not over sweet but with real depth of flavour. Used half a jar between the two of us just for one meal!
The business has stemmed from humble beginnings, with Charanjit hand making her first 20 jars at home on a frosty november night to now 5000 units being made by hand every week in a unit specifically designed to replicate home cooking. In our five years of trading, we have built up some tremendous relationships with our stockists and consumers alike. We are proud to supply our hand-made products to some of the best fine food outlets nationally. We have built a great consumer following for our products by being proactive and attending over 230 consumer shows over the last two years.
I'll be looking out for these in the shops, especially the naga one, just my kinda spice! (WholeFoods and more)
For more details and to order you can click here
