Within weeks Chiman's Chocolate Spice Bars were conceived - bitter dark Valrhona chocolate with cardamom or crunchy bits of allspice, and malty milk chocolate filled with poppy seeds or sesame seeds."I needed someone who knew spices and loved chocolate," says Porter. Both were brooding about spice-flavoured chocolate, but neither had all the expertise. However, judging by the chicken korma and Bombay potatoes, I would use less than a whole sachet of spices and hold back on the salt.Recently, Sally Agarwal took a stand at the Fine Food Fair at Earls Court, where she met Alan Porter from The Chocolate Society. The recipes were quick to prepare and, though not 100 per cent authentic, tasty nevertheless. Their recipes had already been modernised and Anglicised for ordinary cooks. "I'm too busy to spend more than half an hour cooking dinner," remarks Sally, "so our food is designed to create a bit of a sizzle and a lovely smell without taking hours."Certainly, my kitchen was filled with a pungent aroma as soon as the spices hit the pan.
Selling our brand by driving around the country was simply not an option."The future lay in blending Asian flavours with Western products. "I had just had my son, and my brother wanted to continue his work as a business analyst in London. A family conference decided that two of his children, Sally and Danny, would continue the business with their mother."We had to totally rethink the business," Sally recalls. It was all there, ready-measured with just the right amount of fenugreek and black mustard seeds.If they wanted to make fresh cauliflower and spinach bhajis, all they needed was a packet of Chimanlal's spices and the attached recipe.But early in 1997, Chimanlal suddenly died.
They were then ground, mixed and vacuum-packed within hours by a part-time staff of local ladies. Soon Chimanlal was selling his spice sachets to delicatessens and health food shops throughout the south-west of England.No longer did local curry enthusiasts wonder how to find asafaoetida for their Bombay potatoes. The spices were imported from India via Bristol in 25kg sacks - everything from turmeric root to dried chillies. As far as they are concerned, you can't understand cooking with spices unless it's in your blood. It took an Indian, Chimanlal Agarwal, to see how to capitalise on this birthright. Mix small sachets of spices for each of the popular curries, print the recipe on the back and then sell, sell, sell. Armed with this idea, he founded Chiman's in Barnstaple, Devon, in 1990. "It looks like a rosehip, though it's part of the apple family.
It's not picked until November when it's soft, squashy and brown. It makes a dark red jelly like spiced apple".Tiptree Organic Strawberry and Raspberry Jams, pounds 1.79, Organic Marmalade pounds 1.59, available from Waitrose and all good food shops.. You must learn to cook curry at your mother's knee - or so most Indians believe It doesn't matter that Madhur Jaffrey is your bible It's irrelevant that you've eaten your way around India Even marrying an Indian won't necessarily help. Sensibly, it is starting with the varieties it knows best: strawberry, raspberry, and orange marmalade. "There are so few people farming organically world-wide that a regular supply of fruits is a major obstacle," says Fergod. Hoping to overcome this hurdle, Tiptree is busy converting land to organic use, and planted its first organic plum orchard a couple of weeks ago.