The Spicery Larder!

We're always creating new recipes in the Spicery Kitchen (over 150 per year at the current rate....!), and our range is constantly changing. That makes things interesting for us (and hopefully for you too), but one of the downsides is that we can't possibly keep every kit and spicebox in stock at any one time.

From our Summer Survey results, we know it's a real annoyance when you want to make a recipe again (or even just part of one like a chutney or a bread) and when you look for it on the website, it's nowhere to be seen....

There's always been a 'MAKE THIS AGAIN' section on our recipe cards so you can make a simplified version at home if a kit is out of stock, but we've never been 100% clear exactly what ingredients you're likely to have at home, or how complex we should make these alternative mixes in order to still get a decent result if we no longer have the original blends. Because of that, this section has often felt slightly unsatisfactory and probably isn't proving as useful to you as it could be. 

As it's so unlikely that anyone has our full range of over 150 ingredients at home, PLUS all the inifinite ways we crush, grind or roast our ingredients to make our mixes, we've come up with the Spicery Larder - a short(ish!) list of everyday ingredients that if you keep them in stock means you'll be able to make any of our recipes again whenever you want in future. We'll start adding this new 'MAKE THIS AGAIN' section to ALL easy kits and subscription recipe cards from the end of November, which will list the quantities of Spicery Larder ingredients you need to recreate the recipe.  

The 12 key spices you need for the Spicery Larder are:

• black pepper (whole, cracked or ground)
• brown mustard seeds (whole)
• chilli powder (or flakes)
• cumin seeds (whole preferably but ground cumin would be ok in most instances)
• curry powder
• garam masala
• green cardamon (whole or loose cardamon seeds)
• coriander seeds (ground)
• mixed spice
• sweet smoked paprika
• star anise (whole or ground, or 5 Spice powder)
• turmeric (ground)

In addition, there are some other fresh or storecupboard ingredients you'll need (depending of course on which recipe you're making - you won't need all of these at the same time!):

• fresh herbs (coriander, mint, parsley or whatever's needed, depending on the exact recipe)
• fresh chillies (red or green)
• kaffir lime leaves (only needed if you're making a SE Asian recipe)
• fresh ginger
• lemongrass (only needed if you're making a SE Asian recipe)
• fresh lemons
• fresh red peppers
• brown sauce 
• chilli sauce (any type)
• mustard (any type)

Then finally, there are a handful of herbs and spices that are really unique and just don't have any decent substitutes (for example Sichuan pepper or sesame seeds), so from time to time we may also list these ingredients in the MAKE THIS AGAIN section - for these ingredients you'll either need to get hold of these when needed, or just leave them out all together.

As always you're very welcome to get in touch if you had any specific questions about a recipe, need some advice about substitutions or even to ask us to bring an old favourite back! 

Happy Spicing!