The Spice Pioneer travels the world to deliver you a box of spices from a region/country, giving you all the flavours you need to create a tasty and exotic meal in your very own kitchen. I grew up eating a lot of Turkish food and have always been intrigued by trying lots of different cuisines that are full of colourful and unfamiliar tastes and this first box from The Spice Pioneer, for me is the most exciting! As I opened up the box to see what country I was going to take a culinary journey too, I was pleasantly surprised with Galle, a city situated on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka.

WHAT IS IN THE SRI LANKA BOX?

The box contains :

A postcard from the Spice Pioneer himself from his trip to Galle, Sri Lanka

A recipe and ingredient booklet – includes a shopping list

Pre packed pots of –

• Sri Lankan Curry Powder
• Tamarind Paste
• Curry Leaves
• Ground Cinnamon
• Ground Coriander
• Malay Curry Powder
• Black Mustard Seeds
• Fenugreek Seeds

Galle is a coastal city, known for it’s fish dishes and coconut curries so when I opened up the recipe book, one of the dishes was of course a Sri Lankan Monkfish Curry. I love food but one particular food I am fussy with is fish! I grew up in a family restaurant and as a child, seeing and smelling fish kind of scarred me (I know I am strange!) My favourite fish however is Cod and Prawns and maybe a little Salmon, where as my husband and children LOVE fish so we still eat it at home. However, when I read the Ingredients for this dish and found Prawns could be used as an alternative, I bought Prawns during my food shop (for selfish reasons of course!)

WHAT RECIPES COME IN THE SRI LANKA BOX?

The recipes feed 4 people.

• Beetroot curry
• Sri Lankan monkfish (or prawn) curry with basmati rice
• Spicy green beans and black mustard seeds

The dishes I cooked for the whole family, including the children, were very different flavours to what we normal would have, I have used some of the spices in other recipes, but this gave me the opportunity to try some new spices and I was pleasantly surprised how much we all enjoyed these exotic dishes.

All in all it took me around an hour and half to prepare and cook all these dishes and about 10 minutes to eat it up! It was worth the time to prepare and cook as the ‘How to make’ section of the booklet gave a straightforward and easy to follow method in order that the meals should all be cooked to finish at the same time, ready to sit and enjoy hot. The booklet was so nice to have and is so informative and easy to read, helping to make this cooking experience as relaxed as possible.